Enigin News

Enigin News

South Korea Government Want Lighting Efficiency

South Korea Government Want Lighting Efficiency

The South Korean government announced today that it will spend $47 million this year to increase the use of energy efficient lighting products, aimed at helping South Korea cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.

The funds will promote use of light-emitting diode (LED)-based lighting products, power transformers and inverters, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

The effort is expected to cut carbon emissions by 284,760 tons and save 678 gigawatt hours of electricity.

The total savings are equal to power used by 200,000 households. The cuts can help South Korea meet its greenhouse gas reduction target and save money that would have been used to import energy resources, the ministry said.

Of the funding, $9 million will be used to replace regular incandescent and halogen lights with energy efficient LEDs.

State subsidies to encourage people to change their incandescent and halogen lights can reach up to 50 percent of the total cost, the ministry said, adding it wants to replace all incandescent with LEDs by 2014.

Lighting consumes 19% of the worlds electricity generation and emissions measured in CO2 from lighting is equivalent to 70% of global emissions from passenger vehicles, plus in many commercial buildings lighting accounts for 40% or more of their electricity costs.

It makes sense to move to more energy efficient lighting and to even add more efficient intelligent lighting controls just multiplies the savings to be made.

The South Korean imitative is welcome and is step that makes financial sense for commerce and industry to take with government encouragement or not.

Thursday 11th February 2010