Energy Savings and Environmental Impact

Solid-state lighting has the potential to reduce lighting energy use by 50 percent, and to revolutionize the efficiency, appearance, and quality of lighting. No other lighting technology offers so much potential to save energy, at a time when our nation needs bold solutions to vastly reduce our energy consumption. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has made a long-term commitment to provide national leadership to advance research, development, and market introduction of solid-state lighting.

The L Prize competition will accelerate America's shift from inefficient, dated lighting products to innovative, high-performance solid-state lighting products that will save significant amounts of energy and millions of metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Savings and Environmental Impact of 60W Incandescent Replacement Winner

In 2010, DOE projects that the national installed stock of 60W A-19 lamps will be approximately 971 million. In the residential sector, where the vast majority of these lamps are used, the average socket operates for about 1.9 hours per day, or about 700 hours per year. The L Prize competition will drive development and market adoption of a solid-state lighting replacement for the 60W A-19 lamp that uses only 10 watts — a savings of 83%.

• If every socket in the U.S. converted their 60W incandescent lamps to the 10 W L Prize winner, the country would save approximately 34.0 Terawatt-hours of electricity in one year, and avoid 5.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions.
• That's enough electricity to power the lights of 17.4 million U.S. households, or nearly twice the annual electricity consumption of the city of Las Vegas.

Energy Savings and Environmental Impact of PAR 38 Halogen Replacement Winner

The L Prize for the PAR 38 halogen reflector lamp (90W, weighted average) also has the potential to make a significant impact. DOE estimates that the installed stock of reflector lamps with this lumen package will be approximately 141 million in 2010, across both the residential and commercial sectors. In this market segment, the L Prize will stimulate development and market adoption of solid-state lighting reflector lamps that use 75 watts less (87% savings) per socket while producing the same amount of light.

• If all 141 million reflector lamp sockets in the U.S. converted overnight to use the new L Prize lamp, the country would save approximately 15.6 Terawatt-hours of electricity per year and avoid roughly 2.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions.
• These savings are equal to the annual electricity consumption of the entire state of Wyoming, or about equal to the annual electricity consumption of the city of Las Vegas.