Strategies in Light Europe – Day 3 Summary

On the second and last day of the conference program of Strategies in Light Europe in Munich (Germany)  a number of interesting topics were part of the program. (Editors note; this is actually the third day but confusingly, the first day is called the pre-conference program.)

Alexey Kovsh (Optogon, Russia) reviewed the growth of SSL solutions in Eastern Europe. He showed some differences across Eastern Europe and across different application segments. In the central region there is more focus on light quality, High CRI and warmer colour temperatures. In the South East region price is key, cooler colours are preferred and CRI is less important. In Russia people are more interested in SSL luminaires instead of LED retrofit lamps.

Jurgen Waldorg (ZVEI) presented different approaches to drive SSL solutions in Germany. Since 2008 the German government supports LED projects through funding the development and dissemination of decision making tools and education programs for consumers and professional lighting users. For more information (also in English) go to www.zvei.org and www.licht.de.

The European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) organized a number of sessions on the technical development of LED manufacturing. Two of the presentations discussed the benefits of using silicon instead of sapphire as a substrate. Although there are still issues to be addressed, silicon has the potential to become a breakthrough in LED manufacturing cost especially if the existing overcapacity of CMOS equipment from the semicon industry can be used. Another area for cost improvement of LED manufacturing is to improve the yield and up-time in the manufacturing process. Kolja Haberland (LayTec) showed a tool to monitor temperature, curvature and reflectance of the wafer during the LED manufacturing process allowing for quick reaction if some of the key parameters are out of their control limits.

Koen van Winkel (Schreder) gave a clear overview of emerging trends in roadway and streetlighting. In this application segment energy saving enabled by SSL is key. LED also supports the growing need (desire) for more white light. Furthermore LED solutions allow for more (remote) control of lighting installations. Because of the expected reduction in dollar per kilolumen, (for coolwhite around 6 dollar in 2012 going down to 0.7 dollar in 2020) and the opportunity to improve the luminaire efficiency from 62% (2012) to 79% (2020), the overall system performance can dramatically increase. This will make the use of LED for streetlighting even more attractive than it is today.
In the streetlighting market the required lifetime of a system is 25 years. This does not only require long life from the LED’s, but also in the area of the electronics/driver, further developments are needed. Because of the temperature sensitivity of LED’s and electronics, the housing design needs to consider the thermal management requirements of both the LED’s and the associated electronics. To use an existing HID housing and retrofit it with an SSL solution is therefore not possible if a long-term, viable system is needed.
Today daylight sensors and fixed time dimming are already being used by many municipalities. In the future, remote dimming, motion sensors and weather sensors will also be used to optimize the light level using intelligent LED solutions.

Looking back at the conference there were a number of interesting presentations. Although no fundamental new technologies, application or approaches were presented, a lot of work is being done to speed up the implementation of better/more energy efficient lighting solutions enabled by LED technology.

If you missed Day 1, you can read it here.
If you missed Day 2, you can read it here.

Written by our special correspondent, Bas van de Kieft, in Munich.

22 Nov