Carbon Trust Puts Energy Saving LED Lighting Against The Wall

Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by Ross in New Technologies, United Kingdom

When it comes to helping businesses save money and carbon through energy efficiency, the Carbon Trust has seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

Through interest-free loans via the Carbon Trust’s Big Business Refit to businesses looking to save energy, as well as helping the UK’s biggest companies slash energy operating costs, the Carbon Trust is already responsible for helping save the UK economy £1.4 billion in direct costs.

The Carbon Trust has also picked projects that are the most cost-effective ways of saving energy and money for businesses. In 2008/2009 alone they 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from reaching the global atmosphere at a cost of only £4-£6 per tonne of carbon saved.

From its experience in helping companies save energy and money, The Carbon Trust is aware that there is one consistent big winner in the war against unneccessary business costs: Energy Saving Lighting.

Replacement of old, inefficient light fittings with new, efficient lighting systems with intelligent sensors for extra energy savings has consistently yielded the best financial results for businesses, providing the best return on investment periods and resulting in positive cash flow from day one for companies benefitting from the Carbon Trust’s Big Business Refit loans.

With energy saving lighting yielding such consistently effective results, the Carbon Trust has been looking to support new and emerging technologies which can perpetuate the energy saving lighting revolution whilst driving down costs even further and more sustainably.

LED lighting has begun to receive a lot of hype recently, purporting long lifespans and equivalent energy savings to T5 fluorescents, but product costs are still much higher which makes them a financially inferior solution for most applications. LED lighting also relies on conventional semiconductor manufacturing processes, which cause significant levels of environmental damage from use of toxic heavy metals, massive energy requirements and huge volumes of waste water.

Organic LED technologies replace convetional semiconductor LEDs with semiconducting polymers instead. Whilst still an young technology, progress has been huge in recent years and now organic LED lighting is becoming a reality. As well as being more physically flexible and having more potential applications, organic LEDs could be made far cheaper due to their reliance on organic feedstocks rather than heavy metals. Notably, organic LEDs could be made from the products of artificial photosynthesis, placing demands upon atmospheric carbon dioxide as a feedstock rather than a pollutant!

The Carbon Trust is looking to help bring organic LED lighting to the mainstream faster by awarding a £454,000 grant to LOMOX Ltd, who are developing ultra-efficient organic LED lighting materials which, when coated to a film, could be used to cover walls in a light-emitting wallpaper.

Although unlikely to replace traditional point light sources in many environments, architects and specialist lighting designers will be certain to enjoy the prospect of walls of light, especially in retail businesses.