At the recent Beijing-Taiwan Science and Technology Forum held in Taichung, Taiwan, a leader of Taiwan-based LED chip maker Epistar said, if production cost of lighting-grade LED chips would fall to US$1/500lm in the next 2-3 years, LED lighting's market penetration would reach 20-30% in 2012.

The leader noted, currently, Epistar's red LED chip improved from 165lm/W to a laboratory-achieved 180lm/W in December. 40W LED light bulbs were US$20-30 and 60W light bulbs were US$40. Meanwhile, lighting-grade LED chip costs reached US$1/200lm at the lowest, and could become the average in 2011. It’s expected the LED sector could beat the target of US$1/500lm in 2015 set by the US' Department of Energy with the market conditions.

Reportedly, Taiwan has about 50 LED chip makers, 60 chip packagers and 100 end-use application companies. In 2009, Taiwan's LED lighting production totaled NT$93.6 billion (US$3.1 billion) and would grow up to NT$16.77 billion in 2010. LED chips and modules would have a 64%, 31% share, respectively, with lighting applications 5%.