In early 2008, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission co-issued the Interim measures on the management of financial subsidies fund for the promotion of efficient lighting products. It is announced that from this year on, the government will promote 50 million energy-saving lamps all over the country annually in the form of financial subsidies fund. The subsidies for users with large-quantity demand such as schools and hospitals are 30 percent of the price for each energy-saving lamp, and for residents in cities and countryside, 50 percent. The government will promote 150 million energy-saving lamps during the 11th 5-year plan, which would save as much as 29 billion kWh electricity power and reduce CO2 emission by 29 million tons. This policy will not only accelerate the development of the energy-saving lamp industry, but will also open up a huge market for relative enterprises.
In November, 2007, the "China 2007 Peak Investment Forum for the Semiconductor Lighting Industry" points out that in the face of global energy crisis and environment-protection pressure, semiconductor lighting is now considered by the world to be one of the major ways for energy saving and environment protection. It is expected to enter the general lighting sector that takes up 15 percent to 20 percent of global electricity consumption. Once it does, the energy saving effect would be markedly improved.
Among semiconductor lamps, LED lamp is relatively more technologically advanced and environmentally friendly. LED is the acronym for Light-emitting Diode. A LED lamp is a semiconductor lamp. It is a kind of solid-state cold light source that has low working voltage, low energy consumption, high light-emitting efficiency and a long lifespan. LED lamp is now a shiny star in the lighting industry. The usual lifespan of an incandescence lamp is 1000 to 2000 hours, while theoretically that of a LED lamp is 100,000 hours. Moreover, compared with an incandescence lamp, a LED lamp can save up to 80 percent of the electricity consumed, and compared with a fluorescence lamp, 50 percent.
From the perspective of the global market, the major application of LED is in mobile phone backlight source. In the next wave of development, high-end LCD TV backlight and automotive lights will be the new growth engines for LED. Prospectively, break-through of LED application in general lighting will be achieved around the year 2010.
With technology advancing and company scale enlarging, the penetration rates of domestic enterprises into the markets of mobile phone backlight, special white light illumination (including street lamps) and automotive LED lights keep increasing. When the era of white light illumination comes, the whole industry will enter the phase of rapid development.
The market volume of LED lamp is vast, with an annual increase of 50 percent. The market perspective is highly promising. Statistics show that the LED application market has increased from US$12.5 billion in 2004 to USD50 billion in 2008. The whole globe is racing for the control of the commanding point in the LED market. The world's three largest companies in the lighting industry, i.e. GE, PHILIPS and OSRAM, have all established cooperation with semiconductor companies to set up semiconductor lighting enterprises. "Currently, we too have put on agenda the development of LED and PV industry, promoting the use of energy-saving lamps", said Professor Luo Yi from Tsinghua University. In June, 2003, the Ministry of Science and Technology set up the "National LED Lighting Project", with an anticipation of saving an electricity expenditure of RMB 260 billion yuan by the year of 2015.
Compared with foreign enterprises, the international competitiveness of the Chinese semiconductor lighting industry lags far behind. Fan Yubo, the chairman of China Solid State Lighting Alliance, thinks that in terms of industry and organization management, the Chinese semiconductor industry is faced with many problems, such as slack R&D strength, overall technology weakness, limited scale, and lack of integration and cooperation from all sectors of the industry to tackle major problems. We should fully consolidate our current resources and strengthen our ability of innovation.
For that, Li Xu, board chairman of Kingsun Optoelectronics, suggests that domestic lighting enterprises should enhance their strength of scientific development so as to create and own more core technologies. In early 2007, Kingsun Optoelectronics and Tsinghua University, with cooperation in production, study and research, co-established the LED Technology and Application Research Institute. It creates a R&D achievement transition platform and a product testing center. The institute put together a team with world-class high-end technology, making it the education base for LED green lighting industry talents. At present, the high-power LED street lamp co-developed by Kingsun Optoelectronics and Tsinghua University is listed in the National Major New Product Plan. The street lamp is durable, energy-saving, safe and environment friendly and has a full range of colors.
"Presently, Demonstration projects of LED Olympics major projects are in the start-up preparation state." In Luo Yi's opinion, the application of LED in Olympics major projects will realize the 3 concepts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. With the influence of the Olympics, the demonstration effect will be extremely great, affecting and promoting the development of the LED industry.
Source:CE.cn
