The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has forecasted in its annual SSL R&D plan for 2015 that by 2030 approximately 80% of all lighting fixtures in the US will be LED lighting which would result in an annual energy savings of up to 395 TWh, a 60% reduction in electricity consumption, which at a commercial price of $0.10/kilowatt-hour would correspond to an annual savings of US $40 billion.

While much progress has already been made over the years in improving the efficiency of LED lighting systems to reach their full energy savings potential further advances need to be made in the total luminaire efficiency. The driver losses alone in a luminaire could be 10% or greater and failure rate of the drivers are as high as 52%. The report mentions AC LED packages, such as Seoul Semiconductor’s Acrich technology, that are designed to run directly off the AC line power and High-voltage LEDs, such as Seoul Semiconductor’s proprietary MJT (Multi Junction Technology) LEDs, operating closer to the line voltage as possible options to help luminaire designers to reduce their fixture costs and further improve on the efficiency of the luminaire.

On the left is a CFL lit room.	A similar room lit with LED. (Seoul Semiconductor)

The US Department of Energy in its annual reporting continues to project direct AC LED technology and High-voltage LEDs as promising technologies in the continued adoption of LED lighting. For instance in the study conducted by the DOE in 2010 Seoul Semiconductor’s direct AC LED technology, Acrich MJT, had energy savings of upto 86% as compared to traditional lighting. In the 2015 report, DOE has again mentioned direct AC LED technology and High-Voltage LEDs as the next generation of light sources.