An illuminating study

The use of highly-efficient, cost-effective white light-emitting diodes as a replacement for inefficient, polluting kerosene lamps common in the developing world, could potentially save tens of billions of dollars per year worldwide, according to a scientist at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

Evan Mills, of Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, notes in an article in the May 27, 2005 issue of the journal Science that more than 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity, and many others have only intermittent access. As a result, those who can afford illumination when it’s dark rely on lamps that burn kerosene, diesel, propane, or biomass-based fuels.

Mills proposes a lighting option that developing nations might use to reduce the cost of providing effective, cleaner lighting to their citizens. “As they modernise, developing countries can select better technologies, and in so doing surpass levels of efficiency typical of industrialised nation. The latest improvement is the solid-state white light-emitting diode [WLED].” In recent years, R&D performed by private industry as well as the US Department of Energy has made these light sources suitable for task illumination.