Solid State Lighting; a Type of Lighting That Uses LEDs, PLEDs, and OLEDs as Primary Source of Light

 

Solid state lighting is a type of lighting that uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs), polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs), and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) as primary source of light rather than gas, plasma (fluorescent lamps), or electrical filaments. In short, it is technology in which LEDs, PLEDs, and OLEDs replace conventional fluorescent and incandescent lamps for general lighting purposes. Solid state lighting find applications in electronic billboards, traffic lighting, and headlamps for motor vehicles.

Solid state lighting offers various benefits, such as small size, long life, superior color, cool beam, low energy use, uni-directional light, ease of control, and high color rendering index. Current challenges with solid state lighting include cost, glare issues, color consistency, power quality, heat management, and system and controls compatibility. However, it is used for a wide variety of reasons in different industries and can be constructed to meet a wide variety of requirements. Solid state lighting has grown in popularity over the past few years.

This is largely due to the fact that solid state lighting consume much less electricity compared to traditional lighting, produce little to no heat, and have a greater life expectancy. Solid state lighting is often used in traffic lights and is also used in remote controls, building exteriors, train marker lights, street and parking lot lights, modern vehicle lights, etc. Solid-state lighting has evolved to a point where the light-emitting diode (LED) is now the preferred light source for many lighting applications. Thus, there is an increasing demand for such lighting.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the majority of lighting installations are expected to use LED lighting, and energy savings from LED could reach around 569 TWh annually by 2035, equal to the annual energy output of more than 92 1,000 MW power plants.