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How does "green lighting" affect and promote the LED lighting industry?

"Green lighting" was first proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1991 to "launch a green lighting project" concept, and then immediately received the support of the United Nations and the attention of many countries, which led to the LED lighting competition.

Actively promoting the implementation of green lighting goals and engineering projects from the aspects of policy and technology is the main means for the country to promote the use of established goals.

In 2003, the British government encouraged the public to use LED lighting through the "Energy White Paper", and local lighting companies also actively participated in the research and development and production of LED lighting products. From 2000 to 2006, Europe launched the "Green Lighting Program", which eliminated high-energy-consuming products. The EU banned the use of high-wattage incandescent light bulbs from September 2009, and completely banned incandescent light bulbs in 2012. As early as 1997, the United States achieved energy savings of 7 billion kWh through green lighting projects, which were later incorporated into the "Energy Star" building energy efficiency program in 1998.

my country's "green lighting" from the start of the project to the setting of industry norms

China is the world's largest developing country and the world's second largest energy producer and consumer. With the continuous development of the economy, the consumption of energy has increased sharply. The rapid development of the power industry has led to insufficient power supply, such as the recent power outages in local areas, as well as new energy generation with low power efficiency, power abandonment, and power loss in power transmission. continue to exist over time. Therefore, promoting the technological development of the industrial chain and implementing efficient lighting is one of the main ways to improve the tense power supply shortage.

my country's green lighting "starts in the 8th Five-Year Plan, and starts in the 9th Five-Year Plan". In 1996, the "China Green Lighting Project Implementation Plan" was issued. The main purpose of this plan is to save energy and provide healthy lighting. At that time incandescent and high pressure sodium lamps still dominated the market. At that time, LED lighting was an emerging industry and was in the early stage of industrial development. At that time, LED packaging technology was mainly controlled by enterprises in Taiwan. Later, due to the characteristics of environmental protection, energy saving, high color rendering, and long life, LEDs were gradually accepted by the market, attracting more and more businesses to join the industry.

LED was used in the lighting industry around 2006, mainly replacing incandescent lamps and high-pressure sodium lamps with LED bulbs and street lamps. But what really makes LED lighting enter the rising period is the subsequent cost reduction, mainly due to the updated manufacturing of equipment and the automation of LED packaging technology to improve product quality and stability. The LED lamp beads have dropped from the earliest few dollars to a few cents or even a few cents, and many manufacturers can adopt different manufacturing solutions according to the use fields of different customers to promote the penetration of LED lighting into the civilian field. So far, it has been achieved Nearly 60%-70% replacement.

Before LED entered the mature stage, many small workshops of LED lighting appeared due to its low entry threshold. In terms of technology and manufacturing process, these small workshops pursue the same cost as large enterprises or even lower, so that the level of price does not represent the excellent quality, resulting in confusion in the LED lighting market. Then the country launched the 3C certification standard and the environmental protection policy of green lighting, which standardized the LED lighting industry and prompted enterprises to turn to the improvement of technology and equipment.

"Green Lighting" in the Background of the Macro Era

Then from a macro perspective, there are four reasons for the introduction of "green lighting":

First, the continuous growth of population has led to the continuous increase of primary energy consumption; secondly, due to the different economic development of various countries, different energy consumption growth patterns have been created. Developed countries have entered a post-industrial society and their economies have shifted to an industrial structure with low energy consumption and high output. development, the growth rate of energy consumption is significantly lower than that of developing countries; third, the regional energy consumption structure is significantly different; finally, the uncontrollability of the epidemic and political reasons has increased the pressure on energy trade and transportation.

At the same time, the global climate change is becoming more and more serious, and the natural disasters caused by the climate are becoming more and more severe, and the people's awareness of environmental protection is also increasing day by day. As a result, a diversified, clean, efficient, globalized and market-oriented "green economy" has become a breakthrough to break the energy predicament.

One of the world's two continents lays the foundation for free trade and green lighting development

In the 1990s, a global trade pattern of two continents was formed. First, the free trade agreement between the primary and tertiary industries in North America led by the United States, followed by the integration of the European Union’s economic market, and finally the World Trade Organization (WTO) established.

After the formation of the three circles, the foundation of world free trade and the pattern of regional monopoly were formed. The "Kyoto Protocol" signed by various countries in 1997 further promoted the development goals and tasks of green lighting, and encouraged and supported the research and innovation of LED lighting technology.

In 2007, the subprime mortgage crisis and anti-dumping policy in the United States hit the lighting industry, which was just in the development stage, and caused a sharp drop in exports. However, Chinese lighting companies tried their best to introduce advanced equipment and R&D new technologies. From 2013 to 2016, the domestic replacement rate of LED chips increased, and the cost performance of small and medium power products was greatly improved, finally catching up with the second round of LED chips. As a result, China is gradually realizing the localization of the entire industry chain from OEM.

"Green Power"

The concept of "green lighting" was proposed by the US National Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1990s. It includes four indicators of high efficiency, energy saving, environmental protection, safety and comfort. High-efficiency and energy-saving, as the name implies, ensures that the least amount of electric energy is consumed under the condition of sufficient lighting, thereby reducing the pollutant discharge of the power plant and achieving the purpose of environmental protection. The light is clear and soft and does not produce ultraviolet rays, and the anti-halation and light pollution are for the purpose of safety and comfort.

From a macro perspective, the specific implementation of green electricity consumption can be divided into two aspects: reducing energy consumption on the one hand, and developing new technologies and products on the other hand. Replacing incandescent lamps with LEDs nationwide can save about 41.67Mtce (2018), which shows that its energy saving effect is remarkable. With the development of technology, today's LED lighting has developed to the late stage of maturity, and it is inevitable to develop new applications, such as the cross-industry combination of smart lighting, such as the combination of lighting systems and big data in different application scenarios.

From a microscopic perspective, the speed at which an enterprise eliminates old production capacity, develops new energy-saving products, and the feasibility of long-term goals determines its future development. With the continuous advancement of technology and the ever-changing market, for the lighting industry, it is easy to be eliminated by the times if it sticks to the rules and does not cut the meat in time or even pay attention to the changes in market expectations. Speed is efficiency, and sometimes it is the key to winning. This requires companies to keep abreast of the world situation and the government's industrial planning, so as to make timely or even advanced decision-making adjustments.

Countries from the policy to promote green lighting

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, countries have actively promoted green lighting plans, and most countries have formulated rigid laws and regulations and target completion standards. Typical of these are the downgrading of energy labels and the transparency of product information implemented in Europe, China and some other countries. The downgrading of energy labels avoids the appearance of confusing labels such as "AA", "AAA" and "5A" in the past due to technological development. The same QR code is more convenient for users and other related industries to fully understand product information, so that product informatization makes consumers more independent and selective. Secondly, a comprehensive ban on products and materials with serious toxic and harmful pollution, such as Japan's ban on import and export of mercury-containing products.

The impact of "green lighting" on the LED lighting industry can be viewed from four aspects: raw materials, equipment, technology, and changes or expansion of application scenarios.

"Green Lighting" Influences Future Material and Equipment Choices

Common substrate materials include gallium nitride substrates, silicon substrates and sapphire substrates. In June 2011, China's first super 100kg sapphire crystal became one of the mainstream substrate materials after it came out in Yangzhong, Jiangsu. At present, sapphire substrate accounts for 20% of the production cost of epitaxial wafers. Sapphire's competitor, silicon, has better thermal conductivity and a larger light-emitting area.

From the perspective of energy-saving and high-efficiency requirements, the selection of raw materials in the future is more inclined to have higher luminous efficiency, controllable lighting brightness, and short product replacement frequency. Therefore, silicon substrates and even silicon carbide substrates will be the strong opponents of sapphire substrates in the upstream LED lighting industry after the cost problem is solved in the future.

At present, the mainstream chip equipment in the world is MOCVD. The main manufacturers are AIXTRON in Germany, Veeco in the United States, and China Microelectronics Corporation. Since 2009, governments across mainland China have subsidized the purchase of MOCVD equipment by LED chip manufacturers. Subsequently, a large number of LED chip companies have increased their demand for MOCVD equipment.

According to the statistics of LEDinside, the optoelectronic research division of TrendForce, by the end of 2012, the number of MOCVD equipment in China had exceeded 900, and from 2015 to 2019, the global MOCVD equipment market scale showed a rapid growth trend, and the global LED chip production capacity gradually increased to mainland China. At this stage, China has become the world's largest manufacturer of LED chips.

The impact of "green lighting" on technology

Policies correct the direction of the industry, and technology promotes the development of the industry. The rise of IOT and 5G networks has driven LED lighting to the digital technology field of cross-industry integration. The wide application of sensors and the cloudification of big data make intelligent systems become the development focus of downstream enterprises in recent years. In the digital age, the application of 5G networks and sensors can analyze user information, product usage environment, and user behavior. By setting up intelligent systems, lighting is more efficient and humanized, and unnecessary energy consumption is also saved. .

In addition, the government's vigorous promotion of smart cities and smart engineering projects will increase the market demand for smart lighting. In 2017, the global smart lighting market entered a stage of rapid development, with a market size of nearly US$4.6 billion. TrendForce estimates that the global smart lighting market will reach US$8.19 billion in 2022.

The impact of "green lighting" on application scenarios

Smart Lighting

With the acceleration of urbanization, the demand and construction scale of urban public lighting facilities are increasing year by year, and the energy consumption of urban public lighting is also increasing. In the era of sustainable energy development, energy saving and emission reduction, efficient lighting, improving the life of street lamps and other outdoor lighting, and reducing maintenance and management costs are also the main needs of urban intelligence.

For example, in terms of traffic lighting, the smart lighting system can adjust the brightness of the street lights according to the real-time traffic flow and the driving direction of the vehicles as long as there are vehicles on the road under video surveillance, and can freely group and control the street lights. After testing, the power saving rate can reach 80.5%. .

plant lighting

With the continuous deterioration of the earth's living environment, and energy conservation and emission reduction in agriculture, the plant lighting that simulates sunlight has shown explosive growth in recent years, and the industry's attention has gradually increased. Although the main driving factor is the rapid growth of the North American medical and recreational cannabis market, in the long run, LED lighting applications in the fields of vegetables, medicinal materials and other fields have much more application space than cannabis.

According to the latest research data from TrendForce, the global LED plant lighting market will grow by 10.4% to US$1.85 billion in 2022. In the first half of last year, the development of the plant lighting market slowed down, mainly due to the delay in shipping and the increase in freight prices affected by the epidemic, followed by the shortage of power ICs and other political factors.

"Green Lighting" promotes cross-industry cooperation, and enterprises actively deploy the field of smart lighting

Enterprises actively promote green smart lighting, optimize resource allocation and expand business scale through cooperation. In the fiercely competitive market environment, they can quickly achieve expected goals and gain competitive advantages. At the same time, with the help of partners' resources and advantages, they can quickly deploy emerging application scenarios and Connect related industry chains.

In 2021, lighting companies will cooperate with Internet companies, smart lighting cloud platform companies and other technology companies to cooperate in sub-scenarios under smart lighting, such as Leyard and Foshan Lighting in the fields of smart city, smart education and smart office. layout, and Huati Technology focuses on smart street lights, and one of UL's development directions is human-based lighting.

green lighting

"Green lighting" promotes smart lighting, the country's planning on smart lighting

The "National "Twelfth Five-Year" Science and Technology Development Plan" supports LED lighting. In order to further promote "green lighting", on October 1, 2012, the import and sales of general lighting incandescent lamps were gradually banned according to power levels. At present, the main content of the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the 2035 vision can be divided into digital applications and green economy.

For the LED lighting industry, digital applications are mainly to further integrate and improve smart lighting in smart homes, and to further enhance the adaptability of product types and lighting systems. The green economy is to develop green smart lighting under the sustainable development of energy, establish industry standards uniformly, and ensure the high efficiency and energy saving of products.

The epidemic further promotes the integration of the LED industry

In 2020, the big waves washed away the sand, causing some companies to withdraw from the market because they could not cope with the sudden impact of the epidemic, and the LED chip industry was further integrated. There are about 14 LED chip manufacturers in production, and the top three alone account for 67% of their revenue, namely Sanan Optoelectronics, Huacan Optoelectronics and Qianzhao Optoelectronics.

Although the Chinese lighting market is developing rapidly and the competition is fierce, the market demand is huge and the development environment is good. It is still a key market for large-scale manufacturers. For example, in 2016, after withdrawing from the Asian lighting business due to GE Lighting's strategic adjustment, it will return to the Chinese stage in 2021.

my country's financial subsidies

According to the national industrial plan, technology research and development and breakthroughs have become the focus of government encouragement, especially the LED industry has gradually entered a mature stage. Data shows that in the first three quarters of 2021, the top 37 LED A-share listed companies received government subsidies, totaling more than 1.3 billion yuan. Among them, the Bull Group received subsidies of up to 834 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2021, and the net profit in the same period was as high as 2.21 billion yuan.


"Green Lighting" Promotes Industrial Structure Adjustment

After the government funds entered, a large number of enterprises poured into the LED industry successively. After the subsidy retreated, it entered a new round of reshuffle in 2011. According to statistics, in 2011, 10% to 20% of LED-related enterprises in the country have closed down, of which the Pearl River Delta accounts for the vast majority.

Since the second half of 2011, nearly 20 heavyweight mergers and acquisitions have occurred in the global LED industry, including the Chinese market. Some companies with strong capital and clear long-term goals, such as GE, Osram, LayTec AG of Germany, and Endo Lighting of Japan, have begun to acquire, especially some international lighting manufacturers including Osram, Philips, etc. A series of mergers and acquisitions have made more layouts. By 2012, the distribution of enterprises was highly concentrated, with the Pearl River Delta accounting for nearly 90%.

In 2020, the industrial structure after the epidemic has been adjusted. For example, in the upstream of the LED industry, ingot manufacturer MONO, sapphire wafer manufacturer Jingan, and PSS manufacturer Zhongtu ranked first in their respective links, occupying a dominant position in the competition.

The promotion of "green lighting" to market size

The LED lighting industry is developing rapidly. From the chip side, the output of GaN wafers in mainland China was 2.8256 million pieces in 2019. It is worth noting that the epidemic has not affected GaN Wafer companies, and even the output will directly increase by more than 10 times by 2020, rising sharply to 29.12 million pieces, and to 39.44 million pieces in 2021.

The surge in upstream production represents a surge in downstream demand. From the perspective of lighting products, in the first three quarters of 2021, the total export value of China's lighting products was 46.999 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 32.68% (China Lighting Association). Among them, the number of LED bulbs exported was the largest, reaching 4.549 billion pieces, and the export value also reached $3.386 billion. From the perspective of market penetration rate, the penetration rate of LED lighting will be close to 60% from 2021, and the penetration rate of LED lighting will continue to increase in the future.


"Green Lighting" was further promoted during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and specific and implementable guidance was given. Guide enterprises to rely on scientific and technological progress to improve energy efficiency, take the road of efficient and clean energy utilization, and combine my country's digital economy goals to promote industrial integration, so that the production of the lighting industry is "green" and the application is "greener".

In other words, the emergence of "green lighting" can be said to be the singularity of LED lighting. If the replacement of fuel lamps by incandescent lamps is an industry upgrade 2.0, LED lighting is entering the era of 3.0. And the government has clearly stipulated that in 2025, the energy saving target will be reduced by 13.5% on the basis of 2020, so it is expected that the action on "green lighting" will intensify in the next three years.