26
Mar 2013

A Wall Street Journal Article About the Future of LED’s



Alan E. Salzman
the chief executive officer and managing partner at VantagePoint Capital Partners
On LED lighting

“By 2020, you’re not going to be able to buy a light source other than an LED. You’re on a learning curve of cost reduction, quality improvement and efficacy improvement. Today, 2013, is the first year you’re going to be able to buy an exact clone of a regular 60-watt incandescent bulb at a reasonable price point—meaning a one-year payback to consumers. This year it’s a $10 product. We’re looking at it being a $5 product within 24 months, $2.50 within 48 months. So, by the time you get to 2020, it would be the equivalent cost to today’s regular light bulb, last 25 years and use 85% less energy.
But probably the more interesting thing is, after you digitize the light socket and you switch to LEDs, there’s a second and third wave coming. Changing the color temperature. Changing the ambience of the room. Being able to integrate other functionality—it’s your Wi-Fi hot spot, it’s your alarm system because it detects presence coming into the room. You’ve got a raft of functionality that just has to be integrated into the bulb itself.”

Interesting stuff! The fact is that you can buy an LED light bulb today that you can control from you PC, smart phone or tablet. It is expensive, but it is available. So it is only a reasonable extension that within the near future you can place these “solid state lighting devices” anywhere and monitor them or have them monitor you. I hope the politicians don’t find out about this!!

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