Lighting and Displays
UCSB’s approach to LEDs utilizing nitride semiconductors, yields a uniquely broad spectrum of light.
Illumination and information displays account for 22% of our domestic energy consumption. Incandescent lighting is only 4% efficient, at best, in converting electricity to light. Fluorescent lighting is better, but still only 25% energy-efficient. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) already top 50% efficiency, and have the potential to reach 80%.
At UC Santa Barbara we’ve developed a 150 lumen/watt LED white light source—that’s the efficacy level considered the threshold for commercialization. When we scale it up to provide as much light as a 60W incandescent bulb, and then commercialize it and see it replace incandescent bulbs, in the United States alone we could realize $115 billion cumulative savings by 2025. We would also eliminate the need for 133 new power stations, save 258 million metric tons of carbon, and save 273 trillion watt-hours per year in energy.
That’s just one example of how our world-leading research in lighting and displays will impact domestic and global energy consumption and economics. Our global leadership in this area is widely recognized, and is reflected in the award of the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize to Prof. Shuji Nakamura, co-director of our Solid State Lighting and Energy Center, for his invention of revolutionary new light sources: blue, green, and white LEDs and the blue laser diode. The center is continuing to develop new LED technologies and to work with companies to commercialize them. Under the aegis of our Institute for Energy Efficiency, and with the research synergies made possible by the institute, the impact of the lighting and displays research at UCSB will be realized far sooner than it could be otherwise.
