When it comes time to put in new lightbulbs, you’ll soon have yet another choice, on top of fluorescent, incandescent and halogen lights. They’re cheap, powerful and environmentally friendly, too – LEDs.

Light-emitting diode lamps have long been known for their efficiency, but due to high prices they have been mostly restricted to expensive industrial and consumer goods like billboards, TVs and automobile lights.

But yesterday Philips, the Dutch electronics company, announced it would begin selling LED bulbs at the local discount chain E-mart.

Branded “Ambient LED,” the lights work in sockets for incandescent or halogen lights. Ambient LEDs last 45 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Replace one incandescent light with an LED, and it can cut 30 kilograms of carbon dixiode emissions per year, the same as planting a tree.

“With hopes of introducing high-quality lighting to consumers, we are offering LED lights at a very competitive price,” said Kim Yun-yeong, vice president of the company’s light division.

Ambient LEDs are priced around 20,000 won ($18), about half the cost of previous varieties.

LG Electronics also began selling LEDs for homes in February. The Seoul-based company announced yesterday that it received a certification from the Korea Energy Management Corporation for the product’s exceptionally high energy efficiency.

Compatible with halogen sockets, LG LEDs can be used for 12 hours daily for 10 years and cost 34,000 won.

“We plan to accelerate our LED light business in the coming days by introducing eco-friendly bulbs different from other lights,” said Kim Yong-hwan, director of the company’s solution business team.

LG plans to use those lights at its Yeouido headquarters when they are renovated this year.

Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, is adopting a wait-and-see approach, still uncertain whether LEDs will succeed in the consumer market. Samsung has been making LEDs for industrial purposes since 2007.

“We are still looking into it,” said Lee Jun-ho, a manager on Samsung’s LED business unit.

“There are a lot of things to consider, such as at what specifications and price will work best in the consumer market.”

Seattle was named the leader Monday of a national consortium of cities that want more energy-efficient streetlights.

The U.S. Department of Energy chose Seattle and Seattle City Light for their work in seeking more environmentally friendly technology and carbon neutrality.

Seattle in 2007 began replacing its streetlights with longer-lasting, brighter LED streetlights. Making the switch required a lot of product testing and research, and the city can now share that knowledge with other places considering the switch.

Seattle intends to replace 40,000 streetlights in the next five years, including about 5,000 this year.

The replacement will cost about $23 million over five years, $1 million of which is from a federal grant. The city expects to save millions on energy and maintenance with the new lights.

With more than 34 million streetlights in use nationally, the DOE thinks switching to LED lights could save communities as much $750 million a year in energy costs.

As head of the Municipal Solid State Street Lighting Consortium, Seattle City Light will receive a $200,000 federal grant and recruit 50 cities to join.

Originally Posted by Seattle Times staff

In one of the boldest renewable energy standards set thus far, Colorado’s governor Bill Ritter has signed into law a bill requiring 30% of the state’s energy mix come from renewable sources by 2020. Which means, in the next 10 years, Colorado will get nearly a full third of its power from wind, solar, and other clean sources–now that’s some serious progress.

The move gives Colorado the 2nd highest renewable energy standard of any state in the US, coming in just behind California’s 33% requirement by the same time.

Ritter said at a signing ceremony that Colorado’s efforts to create a friendly business climate for renewable energy has attracted pioneering companies such as wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S.
The bill emphasizes home electricity production using devices such as solar panels and small wind turbines. State officials have predicted that 100,000 Colorado homes could begin producing energy because of state programs.
On top of all that, Aspen Daily News cites a report that predicts that the bill will end up producing 33,500 jobs, and injecting a whopping $4.3 billion into the state’s economy. The bill will reduce carbon emissions by an amount that’s equivalent to taking 670,000 cars off the road. Not bad, Colorado.

LEDs offer a lot of advantages over incandescent bulbs – they’re extremely energy efficient, can last for up to 17 years, and they’re cool to the touch, since very little energy is emitted as heat. Capitalizing upon this third oft-ignored quality, the designers at D-Vision unveiled a cool little lamp composed of 97% soap at their ON/OFF exhibit during Milan Design Week. Since the bulbs radiate hardly any energy as heat, the designers were able to use soap as a lampshade material, bringing energy-efficient clean tech to a whole new level.