The LED replacement lamp market will grow 30% annually, in terms of units sold, between 2012 and 2016 according to new research published by analyst firm Strategies Unlimited.
Strategies Unlimited has published a new report entitled "LED replacement lamp market analysis and forecast" that projects a global LED-retrofit-lamp market that exceeds $3.7 billion by 2016. The growth in solid-state lighting (SSL) products intended for existing sockets is from a $2.2 billion base in 2011, and the firm projects an annual 30% growth in the number of units sold.
According to the report, there were 39.9 million SSL A-lamps (A19 lamps with a legacy Edison base) sold globally in 2011. Strategies Unlimited analyst Katya Evstratyeva said that Japan led the way in consuming LED A-lamps with 24.7 million of the global total. The Japanese Eco-point program was in part responsible for the high market numbers, but Evstratyeva said other factors such as environmental concerns and high prices in compact-fluorescent lamps (CFLs) contributed as well.
Linear lamps
Perhaps surprisingly, the market for LED-based linear fluorescent replacement lamps was strong globally as well. Strategies Unlimited reports 19.3 million units sold with 41% of those sales coming in China, 21% in Japan, and only 18% combined in the US and the European Union.
Evstratyeva noted that an obstacle to more linear lamp sales is the DOE testing that has documented lower light output for LED-based replacements relative to fluorescent lamps. Evstratyeva said, "LED-tube-retrofit projects are taking place only when project owners are willing to forego the light output for the sake of energy savings."
China is a perfect example of a case where energy savings drove sales said Evstratyeva. Rising electricity rates and longer working hours in commercial and industrial applications make energy efficiency a top concern.
We at LEDs Magazine have seen an uptick in use of linear LED lamps of late that indicates newer products are closing the gap in terms of light output. Recent projects at Pasadena City College, a San Diego restaurant called Hodad's, and an Air New Zealand facility all were bullish on the technology.
Price declines
The Strategies Unlimited report does temper the positive across the retrofit lamp market with some concerns. The firm is forecasting a 14% annual decline in the average selling price of LED-based lamps. That can help spur growth but reduces the total sales numbers and income cases profit margin.
After asking for a traffic light for years, residents of Bel Air's English Country Manor community near Harford Mall may finally be getting a solution to what they believe is a dangerous intersection.
Residents of English Country Manor, and other developments off Gateway Drive, have to use the intersection at Boulton Street and Gateway Drive, which does not have a traffic light, to get in and out of their communities. There are a number of businesses along Gateway, as well, including the Bel Air Post Office.
Last year, the town of Bel Air installed a camera that detects back-ups on Gateway Drive and then regulates the nearby signals on Boulton Street at Best Buy and at Tollgate Road.
In the past, however, town officials were reluctant to commit to installing a traffic light at Gateway, citing both the cost and the proximity to two other signals along Boulton Street.
For John Meeks, a resident of English Country Manor, the effort with the camera was not enough.
Meeks has regularly attended Bel Air town meetings to urge the town commissioner to make a traffic light a priority.
He may finally get his wish.
In the recently introduced and proposed fiscal year 2013 budget, the town could be allocating $150,000 to install a traffic signal at Boulton and Gateway.
Especially with a new condominium development, called Legacy at Gateway, being built off Gateway Drive, Town Administrator Chris Schlehr says it's the right the right time to install the traffic signal.
"The community there has been asking about it and has been behind it for a number of years, and I think obviously we see that there's a need for it," Schlehr said Thursday.
The budget proposal is Schlehr's. It must still be approved by the five-member Board of Town Commissioners in the coming weeks. The board and Schlehr haven't always seen eye-to-eye on the need for the traffic signal.
It is still too early to tell a timeline for the project, but Schlehr noted the design for the light is already completed. If the project is approved in the budget, he added, the town will start to line up construction.
At this early stage, Meeks said he and other people have discussed the light at the English Country Manor Board of Directors meetings and everyone is "looking forward to it."
"We're very pleased that the traffic light has been funded again for this budget year," he said Wednesday, "and we're looking forward to a much safer intersection."
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