LED Outlook: 2050

Towards Sustainable Light

On 3 October 2023, GIL (the French Interprofessional Lighting Association) opened the doors to a reflec­tion on the future of light­ing by host­ing a major con­fer­ence on LEDs in 2050. This infor­ma­tion­al day, organ­ised with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of LED pro­duc­ers, inte­gra­tors and aca­d­e­mics, brought to light the chal­lenges that the light­ing world will face — chal­lenges rel­e­vant well beyond France, in fast-grow­ing mar­kets such as the UAE where smart, sus­tain­able light­ing is shap­ing new urban developments.

Towards Lighting Standards

Standards are essen­tial to stan­dard­ise prod­ucts, but the con­fer­ence high­light­ed a major chal­lenge: the per­cep­tion of light and its effects varies from one indi­vid­ual to anoth­er. Can we dream of a light that adapts to your pres­ence, or will pub­lic-access build­ings (ERPs) move towards aver­aged set­tings? In any event, these set­tings will become more human-cen­tred than they are today.

The dis­cus­sions empha­sised the need to bal­ance stan­dard­i­s­a­tion with an adapt­able approach, recog­nis­ing the diver­si­ty of human expe­ri­ences with light.

The 280 lm/W Puzzle

One pre­sen­ta­tion had a delib­er­ate­ly provoca­tive title: when will we reach 280 lm/W? Today, LEDs deliv­er around 120 lm/W, but it appears a plateau will be reached at around 250 lm/W. From there, the chal­lenge will be to adapt light to our envi­ron­ment and to refine its control.

In this domain, the grow­ing inte­gra­tion of the Internet of Things (IoT) will raise crit­i­cal cyber­se­cu­ri­ty questions.

The Light–Energy Equation

Comparing the lumens avail­able with the elec­tri­cal con­sump­tion ded­i­cat­ed to light­ing, the glob­al aver­age sits at around 45.9 lm/W due to ener­gy loss­es. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­ap­point­ing giv­en that today’s most com­mon LEDs deliv­er around 120 lm/W. One solu­tion is emerg­ing: the adop­tion of a 48 VDC sup­ply volt­age in pub­lic-access build­ings (ERPs) and homes. Many elec­tron­ic devices — PCs, smart­phones, tele­vi­sions and light­ing fix­tures — actu­al­ly run on low volt­age and rely on trans­form­ers to plug into mains sock­ets. There is sig­nif­i­cant poten­tial here for sav­ings, both in ener­gy and in net­work (cop­per) and man­u­fac­tur­ing costs.

LED Screens: A Silhouette in the Shadow of the Future of Light

Curiously, through­out this day explor­ing LEDs in 2050, one impor­tant top­ic was con­spic­u­ous by its absence from the dis­cus­sions: LED screens. Although LEDs have trans­formed the way we per­ceive light, screens — omnipresent in our mod­ern lives — were not at the cen­tre of the debates. Yet their impor­tance is grow­ing in the dis­play sec­tor, par­tic­u­lar­ly across the Gulf region where large-for­mat LED screens have become a sig­na­ture of lux­u­ry retail and cor­po­rate archi­tec­ture. The future of LED screens deserves par­tic­u­lar atten­tion, as they play a cru­cial role in our dai­ly inter­ac­tion with light. The next advances in this field could define a new era of visu­al­i­sa­tion and visu­al expe­ri­ence, har­mo­nious­ly inte­grat­ing light into our dig­i­talised world.

Light: A Sustainable Challenge

The GIL con­fer­ence laid the ground­work for in-depth think­ing about the future of LEDs in 2050. As the tech­nol­o­gy evolves, the issues of stan­dard­i­s­a­tion, ener­gy effi­cien­cy and secu­ri­ty become cru­cial. The adop­tion of new stan­dards, cou­pled with tech­ni­cal inno­va­tion, will be essen­tial to cre­at­ing sus­tain­able light­ing tai­lored to the diver­si­ty of human needs. Tomorrow’s light promis­es to be not only bright but also enduring.