Strategies in Light – Summary Day 1

On September 18th Strategies in Light Europe started in the M.O.C. Event center in Munich. In the opening presentation, Vrinda Bhandarkar from Strategies Unlimited gave an overview of developments in the LED lighting market.

In 2011 the market grew from $5.5 billion to $9.4 billion. The main reasons given for the big increase were a $1 billion increase in LED retrofit bulbs and a $3 billion increase in LED luminaires (mainly outdoor and downlights). In the near term, a CAGR of 17% for the total LED lighting market is expected.
Price erosion has been around 30% and is expected to stay at this level in the coming years. Some other trends mentioned were:

  • strong increase in low/mid power LED’s
  • increase in offerings of multichip/chip on board solutions
  • global overcapacity in LED production that will last another 2-3 years.

In their key note speeches, Christian Schraft of Osram and Guido van Tartwijk from Philips, stressed the revolutionary character of the changes in the lighting market due to LED technology. In 2015, 50 % of the lighting business will be LED based (van tartwijk). In 2020 this will be 70 % (Schraft). In Japan, 60 % of the lighting business is already LED based.
With the advent of LED technology, the split between a global volume based lamp business and a regional/local design based luminaire market will evaporate as the lifetime of the light source (LED) and the luminaire will become more or less the same.

During the first day an update was also given on the progress of the Zhaga consortium regarding common interface specifications for LED engines, i.e. a LED lighting module and a (non)integrated electrical control gear.
The 250 members of Zhaga have approved 7 light engine interface specifications and over 40 products have been Zhaga certified by the two approved test labs i.e. UL and DEKRA.

Investment in Lighting

Strategies in Light organized a special session dedicated to investment opportunities in the LED Lighting space. Presentations were given by OREE (planar lighting based on LED), Juice (a UK based idea generator of LED Lighting solutions), Led Linear, Isotera (all in one power and control system), LEDO LED, Azzurro (GaN on Si wafers), and Nualight (innovative LED solutions for retail applications). Most of these companies depend on third party financing.
A number of presentations were given to illustrate the investors’ perspective of the LED lighting market opportunity. Some points mentioned were:

LED lighting market shows attractive growth
Price erosion is a risk
Potential of high capital requirement (wafers)
Commoditization
Short product life-cycles (high risk of obsolescence)

At the end of the first day the exhibition floor was opened for all the delegates to see the for themselves the latest in LED technology developments. These innovations are presented by some 75 companies and range from components to complete luminaire systems. The Strategies in Light conference will continue for a further 2 days.

Written by Julie Allen