Unwilling to promote the development of LED lighting industry in Europe

The European Commission (European Commission) has been listed as a key to the photoelectric technology (Key Enabling Technology), and at present, the Commission is vigorously promoting the solid-state lighting (SSL) large-scale expansion in Europe, in order to reduce the energy cost, promote the development of the lighting industry.

Not long ago, announced the European Commission Vice President NeELie Kroes said she the Commission adopted a green paper and lighting theme launched a public consultation, "the development of the LED lighting is no doubt, can save costs, create a more healthy environment. Share your ideas on how to speed up the deployment of LED and how to create more jobs and save costs by promoting LED lighting applications. "

LED lighting can bring a lot of significant benefits, but to become a truly mainstream technology, but also faces many challenges, especially in terms of cost, standardization and public awareness. The Commission hopes that Europe will not lag behind other major economy are also for the development of solid-state lighting.

The European Commission is expected, at present in the EU area lighting accounts for 14% of total electricity consumption in the world, accounting for 19%. But the proportion of the rapid rise in European cities, these areas accounted for half of the total lighting electricity consumption, which means that the development of high efficiency LED will have an important impact on energy demand.

However, many city governments are not aware of this, and conscious cities are facing other challenges. The European Commission in the green book said: "a lot of city to solid state lighting is widely used in the field of outdoor lighting, this is mainly because of the relatively high initial investment cost and tension annual budget conflict. There are other reasons, such as the lack of quality certification system and the lack of standardized development standards. "

For residential users, there are similar difficulties. The Commission said the solid-state lighting sales and production will bring about a revolution. The green book recommended the purchase and installation of solid-state lighting to provide financial incentives for residents, and gas, electricity and communications, lighting can also be provided in the form of services, rather than simply by buying SSL bulbs. In this way, the lighting company can bear the cost of installation, and then get the return on investment from the use of energy savings.

The European Commission predicts that the shift to intelligent lighting systems and services will have an important impact on the lighting and services market. More and more lighting enterprises will enter the lighting service market, leading to the lighting industry consolidation. Customized solutions will become an opportunity for the growth of the lighting industry.

Although Europe has PHILPS and OSRAM, which are two of the world's leading lighting companies and LED manufacturers, solid-state lighting development is still relatively slow. The Commission believes that other countries, especially China, South Korea and Japan, the rapid development in the promotion of the government's strong support and the national strategy.

McKinsey Co's latest report shows that in 2010 the global lighting market size of about 52 billion euros, of which Europe accounted for nearly 30% of the share. By 2020, the global lighting market will reach 88 billion euros, and then with the rising share of developing countries, Europe will only account for 25%.

The Commission said that Europe must solve the current obstacles to the development of solid state lighting effects, and help maintain the leading global competitiveness of the European lighting industry.

The Commission acknowledged that although the European lighting industry has 150 thousand employees, but the LED chip production is very limited. Lumileds, a subsidiary of PHILPS, is a major LED chip manufacturer, but Lumileds mainly produces LED chips in San Jose, California and asia. As a result, OSRAM's subsidiary Opto Semiconductors to become Europe's only manufacturer of a leading manufacturer of LED chips.

OSRAM and PHILPS are the main representative of the European lighting technology and industry influence, but other countries and companies outside Europe is rapidly advancing the development of LED solid-state lighting, which makes Europe worried about being left behind. The figure shows the Japanese electronics giant SHARP's "Mega Zeni" LED module. The module provides up to 100 lumens / watt white light effect and is designed for indoor and outdoor lighting applications.

The Commission proposes some key strategic issues: the European development technology into marketable products, strengthen cooperation in the value chain, and the use of intellectual property rights.

The green book also stressed the LED dependence on scarce raw materials, including LED chip light emitting layer to indium and gallium, and transforms the LED into the blue phosphor of yttrium and cerium rare earth elements. China has more than 95% of the supply of rare earth, and exports are strictly limited.

The European Commission urged the European lighting industry to win public support for the "Horizon 2020" innovation plan, and launched its own plan, promote between large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises cooperation, and relevant organizations to develop industry standards in europe.