Shipments of LED lamps and luminaires to exceed 500 million units in Asia Pacific by 2021

BOULDER, USA: While energy-efficient products are an expensive form of lighting for many customers in the Asia Pacific region, the higher costs are increasingly justified by the higher efficacy and performance compared to traditional lighting products. As a result, demand for light-emitting diode (LED) products is growing among customers in developed countries such as Japan and Korea. Moreover, a number of regional and national government programs are in place to promote LED lighting, and these initiatives will serve as a key driver of the market in the coming decade.

LED is now viewed as an affordable and efficient technology with long-term benefits. According to a new report from Pike Research, sales of LED lighting systems will increase rapidly over the next 10 years, accelerating sharply after 2015. Unit shipments, including lamps and luminaires, will rise from 66 million in 2011 to 542 million in 2021 – an increase of more than 700 percent.

Over the same period, the cleantech market intelligence firm finds, sales of virtually all other forms of lighting – including incandescent, T8/T5, and compact fluorescent lamps – will decline steadily.

“High upfront costs and a lack of customer awareness remain issues for the Asia Pacific LED market,” says senior analyst Andy Bae. “But the news media has been touting recent price declines, and lighting manufacturers in the region are continuously expanding their product lineups to meet demand.”

Indeed, some countries in the region have been early pioneers in developing energy-efficient lighting systems. Japan revealed its plans to lead the LED lighting industry through its 21st Century Light Project more than a decade ago, and launched several LED subsidy and support programs not long after. For its part, Taiwan established a Next Generation Light Source Technology Development & Supply Strategy, which called for a greater reliance on LED lighting and material production and reduced focus on the nation’s traditional business of semiconductors.

The commitment to LED lighting by China, meanwhile, is enormous. For instance, the city of Shenzhen plans to install LEDs in more than 90 percent of public lighting applications, street lighting, and commercial spaces in the next decade.