The production value of Taiwan’s LED lighting industry is estimated to hit three-year high of NT$198 billion (US$6.6 billion at US$1:NT$30) this year, according to Bureau of Energy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

The bureau’s officials ascribed the new high of production value mostly to brisk investments by Taiwanese manufacturers over the past two years to cash in on rising business opportunities fueled by eco conscience and meet growing demand for energy-saving lamps in Europe and America. The investments have not generated results until this year.

Nevertheless, the local industry is losing growth steam, with annual growth rate slowing down to a projected 21.77% this year from 2009’s 103.47% and 2010’s 73.71%.

The bureau’s officials ascribed the growth slowdown mostly to lukewarm investments of the manufacturers in the first half of this year, when total investment capital shrank to only NT$8.8 billion (US$293 million) from the corresponding figure of over NT$10 billion (US$333 million) seen in the past few years.

The bureau began compiling production value statistics in 2008, when the production value of the local LED lighting industry came to NT$46 billion (US$1.53 billion). The figure rose to NT$93.6 billion (US$3.1 billion) in 2009 and NT$162.6 billion (US$5.4 billion) in 2010.

The bureau will budget NT$330 million (US$11 million) for financing the island’s LED lighting projects in the fiscal 2012, with NT$180 million (US$6 million) set to fund streetlight projects of local governments and the remainder to fund indoor lighting projects of commercial buildings and chain stores.

The government plans to replace LED for the island’s 815,000 mercury streetlights by the end of 2018 with the aim of saving 510 million kilowatts of electric power per hour and cutting 317,000 metric tons of CO2 gas emission a year.