Over a million Cree LEDs illuminate China’s first major highway LED lighting project

SHENZHEN, CHINA: Helping to further drive the LED lighting revolution, China recently completed its largest highway lighting upgrade with more than 10,000 street lights featuring more than a million Cree XLamp XP-G and XP-E High Efficiency White (HEW) LEDs. The Shenzhen highway project includes nearly 75 miles of roadways, with LED fixtures installed along one tunnel and four highways.

The LED street lighting installation was a key component of the 2011 Summer Universidade, an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU), hosted by Shenzhen in August.

In compliance with China’s stringent roadway lighting requirements for light efficacy, brightness, luminance, heat dissipation and service lifespan, Kingsun Optoelectronic Co. Ltd., a leading LED lighting company in China, selected Cree XLamp LEDs to illuminate Jihe highway number G15, Nanguang highway number G9411, Longda highway number S318, Yanba highway as well as the Dameisha Tunnel.

Kingsun installed 270-watt and 300-watt RL2R Apollo LED luminaires alongside the highways, including three traffic lanes and an emergency lane in each direction. The installation was designed to average more than 20lux, the national standard for main roads illumination.

In utilizing the combination of Cree XLamp XP-G and XP-E HEW LEDs, which provide high lumen output, unmatched efficacy and compact package size, Kingsun anticipates a 60 percent reduction in energy consumption compared to the replaced, high pressure sodium fixtures. According to the Energy Management Contract (EMC) business model implemented by Kingsun, the energy savings associated with the Shenzhen project can be put toward the installation’s upfront costs for an estimated return on investment of four years.

“Cree’s XLamp LEDs proved to be the perfect solution for our modular lighting system, providing the illumination performance required by our light distribution scheme for this major roadway installation,” said Mr. Li Xuliang, president of Kingsun Optoelectronic Co. Ltd.

“In large-scale lighting deployments like the Shenzhen Highway Project, where lumen output and efficacy are both essential and required, LED lighting is the ideal solution,” said Mr. Tang Guoqing, General Manager of Cree China Sales. “Cree’s broad portfolio of XLamp LEDs was selected for this demanding project because they are highly efficient and have been proven to reduce overall system costs.”