LED lighting can now be found across all applications in the market, from use in small keychains to football stadium flood lighting. LED technology is the most efficient way to convert electrons into photons, and it also offers features such as longer lifetime, superior integration with lighting controls, better optical control, improved dimmability, and colour-shifting. From a circular economy perspective, LED light sources have the least environmental impact, offering the best options when looking across the whole product life cycle. The energy efficiency – or “efficacy” for light sources – is expected by the US Department of Energy to continue to improve through 2050, further reducing the environmental impact and lowering running costs. More improvements are incentivised because higher efficacy means more light per chip (so fewer chips are needed in each light source) and lower electrical currents (so LED drivers can be reduced in size and last longer).

LED lighting is already highly cost-effective compared to conventional light sources, especially incandescent, halogen and fluorescent lamps. Direct, drop-in replacement LED products have been developed by the industry so that fixtures do not need to be changed. These drop-in LED retrofit solutions allow existing fixtures to remain in place while the end user can benefit from substantially lower running costs. Compared to incandescent, LED lamps offer 80-90% energy savings. Compared to fluorescent, they achieve 50-60% savings.

LED retrofit tubes can have payback periods as short as four months (replacing linear fluorescent lamps). For general lighting service (A-type) LED lamps, the payback can be instantaneous or just a matter of weeks when compared with tungsten-filament light sources and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) – thereafter the LED products last typically for five to ten years depending on the lamp lifetime and usage, generating even more savings.

Compared with fluorescent lighting technologies, LED lighting systems are much easier to integrate with smart controls to create intelligent and responsive living environments in homes, offices and cities – delivering light when and where it’s needed. LED technology also offers substantial benefits for households that are off-grid, and given its durability and efficiency, this sector converted to LED more than a decade ago.

Source: https://www.iea.org/reports/targeting-100-led-lighting-sales-by-2025