LEDs are no longer just for lighting. In recent years, LED technology has spread into the horticultural industry. Differing from traditional incandescent bulbs, LEDs are able to be designed to mimic sunlight and give off wavelengths necessary for plant growth. This allows for larger yield and year round harvesting. The past few years has seen a growing trend in horticultural lighting, which was evident at this year’s Taiwan International Lighting Show (TILS) 2014. 

Walking by the booth, the first thing that visitor's see is NuPolar-Lights' smart lighting growth cabinets, which are designed to give different plants the correct spectrum of light.

Among the many lighting manufacturer booths at the Taiwan International Lighting Show at the Nangang Exhibition Center, it was hard not to notice the brightly lit and refreshingly green booth for NuPolar-Lights Optoelectronics. Buzzing with activity, it was clear that LED horticultural lighting has attracted the interest of the industry. 

LED grow lights can also be used in households for growing personal gardens.

NuPolar-Lights, a Taiwanese package manufacturer, featured various horticultural LED lights at their booth from March 20-23. “All plants do not have the same spectrum requirements from sunlight, so as we have been doing the research of many different kinds of spectrum of our products to accommodate all varieties of vegetation,” said Tai Chou, R&D Manager at NuPolar-Lights. The company has integrated its hybrid COB LED technology into light bar, panel sets, tube lighting, and smart lighting growth cabinets.  

NuPolar-Lights also creates LED lamps for growing single plants, such as this sunflower shown here.

Horticultural lighting is currently still a niche market. The European, U.S. and Japanese market for horticultural LED lighting is more mature than Taiwan, but the industry has been picking up speed lately as pollution issues and environmental concern gain public recognition. The company hopes to expand their research and development in this area over the next few years. Although not NuPolar-Lights’ largest client at the moment, the Taiwanese market has the opportunity to grow in the future. As the price of LED products continue dropping, application in the agricultural and horticultural industry is expanding and has a bright future. 

(Author:  Leah Allen, Editor/Translator, LEDinside)