Drawdown – LED Lighting

This is the first in a series of posts presenting the work of Project Drawdown. We’ll focus on Buildings and Cities, however if you would like to explore more about Project Drawdown, we encourage you to visit their website.

What is Project Drawdown? The intention of the founders is to identify, analyze, and develop a database of the most effective solutions already in place for arresting and reversing global warming. Can these solutions be scaled, and if so, what are their impacts? What’s the ultimate price tag — what are the costs and savings related to each solution?

“Drawdown Fellows include 75 individuals from twenty-two countries. Forty percent are women, nearly half have PhDs, and others have at least one advanced degree. They have extensive academic and professional experience at some of the world’s most respected institutions.”

Nearly all of the solutions presented by Project Drawdown result in “regenerative economic outcomes that create security, produce jobs, improve health, save money, facilitate mobility, eliminate hunger, prevent pollution, restore soil, clean rivers, and more.”

LED LIGHTING: Residential and Commercial

Through these links, you can read more about the technical reports on both residential and commercial use of LED lighting.

LEDs work like solar panels in reverse, converting electrons to photons instead of the other way around. They use 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs for the same amount of light, and half as much as compact fluorescents, without toxic mercury. By transferring most of their energy use into creating light—rather than heat, like older technologies—LEDs reduce electricity consumption and air-conditioning loads.

The price (per watt equivalent) for LEDs is two to three times higher than incandescents or floursescents, but falling rapidly. And an LED bulb will last much longer than either other type. Still, upfront cost remains an obstacle for household adoption.

Drawdown’s analysis suggests that by 2050, the potential impact of a significant conversion of household lighting to LEDs would result in:

Drawdown’s analysis suggests that by 2050, the potential impact of a significant conversion of commercial lighting to LEDs would result in:

(Sources: Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reduce Global Warming. Paul Hawken, editor. Penguin Books. 2017. drawdown.org)