South Korea Will Seek to Increase The Use of Energy-Efficient Light Emitting Diodes

South Korea will seek to increase the use of energy-efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) to 60 percent of the country's lighting by 2020 to help cut power consumption, a presidential committee said Wednesday. LED lights have longer service lives and higher energy efficiency compared to fluorescent lamps, but are more expensive. Because of such high initial costs, LED light use in the country currently stands at just 2.5 percent. Under the plan, 200 billion won (US$185 million) will be spent in 2012 and 2013 to get public companies and government offices to switch from conventional lights to LEDs, the Presidential Committee on Green Growth said. "By 2020, all lights used by the public sector will be LEDs, " the committee said, adding that systematic efforts will also be made to use LEDs as street lights in the coming years. In order to encourage the private sector to take similar measures, Seoul will give subsidies to small-sized merchants and traditional markets, while offering tax breaks reaching 30 percent of investments to private companies. Up to 100 billion won will be earmarked by 2015 to cover state subsidies. The committee said that if the country successfully switches to LED lights by 2020, the energy saved will be equivalent to the power output of seven or eight 500, 000 kilowatt fossil fuel-fired thermal power plants. It also said demand created for new LEDs could create a 1 trillion won domestic market that could benefit local businesses. Source: english. yonhapnews. co. kr