Government LED Projections Estimate 29% Energy Reduction by 2025

The Department of Energy has estimated that LEDs could reduce national energy consumption for lighting by 29% by 2025.

That would save U.S. households $125 billion on their electric bills.

 
Semiconductor-based LEDs use much less power than traditional bulbs, don't contain mercury like fluorescents, and they last for years, sometimes even decades. Recent years have seen very exciting developments in this area, with Orlando, Ann Arbor, Detroit and Taiwan announcing switches of traffic lights to LEDs.

2007's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York will even be lit with the technology -- strung along 5 miles of wire!

Advances in lighting technology have increased in scale and scope lately, as the world takes action on climate change. Last month, General Electric announced that it would close its incandescent facilities as it planned to stop making energy-intensive incandescent lightbulbs in favor of compact fluorescent and LED products.

And governments large and small have been passing bans on incandescent lightbulbs in recent months, including China's 10-year plan and Ontario's five-year plan to ban incandescent bulbs. Several U.S. states and U.S. senators and representatives have introduced legislation ban incandescents domestically.