Have LEDs Finally Hit the Mainstream?

Published May 27, 2011

Writing in the Reader's Digest in 1963, a scientist named Nick Holonyak Jr. , who then worked for General Electric and is now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University, predicted that light-emitting diodes, better known as LEDs, would replace the incandescent light bulb of GE's founder, Thomas Edison.

Holonyak, who is known as the father of the LED, wasn't wrong.

He was just early.

LEDs haven't replaced incandescents in homes -- not yet, anyway -- because they're pricey. (See my blogpost, Would you buy a $40 light bulb?) But energy-efficient white LEDs like the one below are increasingly replacing HID (high intensity discharge) lights in indoor and outdoor parking lots. They're finding their way into commercial buildings, too.

Beginning in July, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., will replace 5,400 metal halide and high pressure sodium fixtures in its parking ramps with specially designed new fixtures like the one above featuring LED technology from Acuity Brands. It's thought to be the largest LED conversion that has ever taken place -- the giant mall has more than 12,000 parking places to light!

Meanwhile, Walmart has decided that all of the parking lots at new Walmart supercenters, Walmart Markets and Sam's Club will be lit with LED fixtures from GE. This decision comes after three years of research and testing of LEDs at stores in Kansas and Arkansas, as well as work with other retailers who were brought together by the U.S. Department of Energy's Commercial Building Energy Alliances.

You can't get more mainstream than the Mall of America and Walmart.

"It's a new technology, and that's normally a barrier," said Ralph Williams, who is senior electrical engineering manager at Walmart. "You can get on the wrong edge of the leading edge." But the pilot tests in the U.S. and Central America, where higher electricity rates made LEDs a better deal, as well as his conversations with government officials and other retailers, persuaded him that LEDs provide the bright, safe, customer-friendly light that the retailer wants.

Here's a Walmart parking lot in Guatemala City before LED lights were installed.

Here's the same lot after LEDs:

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Have LEDs Finally Hit the Mainstream?

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5-year payback and 10-year

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Have LEDs Finally Hit the Mainstream?

Comments (1)

5-year payback and 10-year

GreenBiz Events