Road and street lighting: End of growth comes in sight
In a recent study titled "LED in Road and Street Lighting", Yole Développement estimates that the LED luminaire revenue will reach $435M in 2013 and peak at $516M by 2016, fuelled by the increased need for energy efficiency. Growth will be driven firstly by tunnel lighting, and then relayed into highway, road, residential and amenity lighting applications starting in 2014. As early as 2017, the market size will decline because of a decreasing replacement market and as a consequence of the continuing decrease of the average selling prices for LED luminaires, explains Pars Mukish, LED Market and technology analyst at Yole Développement.
Nevertheless, premature conclusions would be out of place, the experts warn. Each General Lighting application, be it indoor or outdoor, has its own way of adopting LEDs. In fact, today outdoor lighting it’s one of the two most dynamic General Lighting market segments for LED adoption.
Fig. 1: Steep growth, steady decline: The market volume for outdoor and street lighting will remain at a high level, but growth won’t last for long, predicts Yole Développement.
Within the segment, architectural lighting was the early adopter, but the main driver these days is road and street lighting. Historically the largest outdoor segment, it now offers the best prospects for LED development in professional exterior lighting. "Road and street lighting is a very attractive market", the report writes. The reason is that EBIT levels generally lie between 5 – 15% and steady growth despite the economic downturn.
Designing with LED implies major changes for conventional luminaire manufacturers – mostly at the optical, electrical and physical levels. With the move to LED technology, traditional luminaire manufacturers face dramatic organizational changes, such as integrating electronic competencies, upgrading optical competencies, taking ownership of the light source (SSL), and revamping production organization. Consequently, internal revolution is required within luminaire companies in order to take full advantage of the LED boom.
“Compared to other lighting applications (residential, commercial, etc.), the outdoor lighting supply chain involves more associated/parallel industries, such as the pole and bracket industry, the control industry and the cable industry”, explains Christophe Richon, CEO of Lux Fit. As is the case for other lighting applications, these industries must also redesign their products in order to make their business sustainable: smaller-size pole and bracket equivalents due to LED miniaturization, new power supply and control capacities due to LEDs’ higher start current, etc.
At the business chain level, outdoor lighting is also quite unique in terms of involving different player types: end-users and specifiers such as municipalities, lighting designers, installers, etc. With LEDs offering longer lifetime, better energy savings and increased aesthetic potential, each player must adapt its activity to make best use of the technology.
The report presents road and street lighting applications and associated market metrics within the period 2008-2020 for each application and region, detailing drivers & challenges, key players, associated volume/market size (luminaires installed base, LED luminaire and packaged LED sales), and LED penetration rate.
For more information visit www.yole.fr
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
