Liu Shiping, deputy secretary-general of the China Illuminating Society: It is not appropriate to implement LED street lamps on a large scale

At present, China has more than 4,000 LED companies. According to statistics, of these 3,000 companies, the main business is assembly and application, 800-1000 companies are engaged in packaging, and there are about 100 upstream chip manufacturers.

The unbalanced development of the industry has given rise to policies and also faces technical barriers, that is, the core technology is blocked by international patents.

How should policy and technology development work together? The newspaper interviewed Liu Shiping, deputy secretary-general of the China Lighting Association.

Chinese standards should be published as soon as possible, "21st Century": China's LED technology, the immaturity is mainly reflected in where?

Liu Shiping: First, upstream chip technology is blocked by foreign patents. Secondly, in application, heat dissipation technology is also one of the bottlenecks. The semiconductor power used in lighting is very large, and heat dissipation directly affects the lifespan. Furthermore, the driving technology, that is, the power supply circuit involves the efficiency of the power supply itself, and the efficiency of the power supply itself is not high enough to reflect the energy saving effect. Raising the driving efficiency is also the key to fully reflecting the superiority of semiconductor lighting. In addition, unlike traditional lighting, there have been over 100 years of history of lighting and lighting device applications. The LEDs are side-emitting and how light can be directed to the illuminated surface requires strict optical design, including lamp and light path design.

"21st Century": How do you view the current lack of LED industry standards?

Liu Shiping: It is not 1-2 years to develop a standard, but now the technology is developing too fast. After the 1-2 year standard comes out, the technology itself may have fallen behind. So now we first introduce the specification. The work of setting standards must be as soon as possible. However, the current norm is also very important. It is precisely because of the normative basis that there are three ministries and commissions procurement standards, otherwise there will be no evaluation criteria.

The "Ten Thousand Cities and Ten Thousand People" project has controversial "21st Century": In what aspects did the "Ministers of the Sixth Committee" promote the development of energy-saving semiconductor lighting industry?

Liu Shiping: This opinion was the Department of Resource Saving and Comprehensive Utilization of the National Development and Reform Commission at that time, and commissioned the China Illuminating Society to organize the drafting of relevant experts. The purpose of this document is to prevent and prevent blind investment in overheating. At that time, it was also necessary to mention “accelerating development”. However, we think that the development was fast enough at that time and it was inappropriate to mention further acceleration. Therefore, in the opinion, many questions were asked about the development of the industry at that time.

The introduction of this opinion has different effects on all levels. The first is to provide direction for decision-making in all provinces and cities. For example, some cities in Guangdong Province at the time developed the semiconductor industry as the No. 1 document. Single-semiconductor lighting is a problem of technological innovation, not an administrative issue. It is unrealistic to rely solely on administrative promotion in the absence of technology.

Second, a signal to enterprises that the country has at least no objection to this industry. However, the country hopes that the semiconductor industry will develop in a planned and step-by-step manner, and it is not left unchecked. We believe that this document still played a certain role in calming the overheated scene at that time. The development goals have been set, and the problems have been made clear.

In addition, the country will intensify its efforts in formulating standards. Otherwise, the market will lack the minimum access system. This guideline accelerates standard setting.

"21st Century": How to evaluate LED applied to street lamps? What do you think of the Ten Thousand Projects?

Liu Shiping: Ten Cities Ten Thousand Peoples is a pilot project conducted by the Ministry of Science and Technology and is currently mixed. We are not opposed to doing demonstrations or experiments, but we believe that using 21 cities, involving 300,000 people, it is not appropriate to experiment on such a large scale.

Street lights are mostly high pressure sodium lamps and high pressure mercury lamps. At present, 80% of domestic street lamps are high-pressure sodium lamps, whose luminous efficiency is 120 lumens/watt, and their luminous efficiency is high. The development is also relatively mature. The LED is trying to replace the high pressure sodium lamp, it is more demanding. The experimental life of the LED is 20,000-30,000 hours, and the lifetime of a single sodium lamp of 12,000 hours is surely guaranteed.

High pressure sodium lamps can guarantee 120 lumens / watt, but all aspects of LED to do better to achieve 100 lumens / watt, LED itself has no advantage in the replacement of high pressure sodium lamps.

At the same time, on the price, a set of 400W high-pressure sodium lamps, even the power supply does not exceed 1,000 yuan, but a set of 400W high-pressure sodium lamp can replace the LED 5000-8000 yuan, or even close to 10,000 yuan. The cost of the money, whether it is the government or the company, is too high. It is better for developed regions to be able to absorb costs, but if they are first applied from street lamps in underdeveloped areas, they will affect their future market promotion.

LED more appropriate indoor lighting "21st Century": how to treat the application of LED in the indoor market?

Liu Shiping: From now on, we should consider introducing LEDs into the general lighting field. Japan is the first to promote LED lighting from the interior, the current market share has exceeded 20%. Of course, it also supports related policies, such as subsidies for environmental protection policies.

LED now has an advantage in life span, 20-30 thousand hours, experimental data has 100,000 hours, 100,000 hours concept is to use 30-40 years. Although the price is more expensive, it does not affect the use. Incandescent lamps have a lifetime of only 1,000 hours and are still worthwhile to replace incandescent lamps. It is more suitable for use indoors than outdoors.

At the same time, promotion must also choose places with conditions, such as five-star hotels, automotive 4S stores, and high-end stores. The United States has such success stories, starting from the Starbucks coffee shop in the United States. Replace halogen lamp and incandescent lamp with LED, the test result is eight months can be recycled.

"21st Century": From the characteristics of LED technology to analyze, the best entry point into the market should be where?

Liu Shiping: We must first use it where we can give full play to LED's own advantages. First of all, the LED is rich in color and bright colors, and the traffic signal is a very successful application. Can also be used for decorative areas, such as urban lighting projects. Secondly, the low operating voltage and safe use can be applied to other industries such as mines. In addition, in the field of general lighting, it can be applied to the film and television stage, agricultural flower cultivation. Its high brightness, small size, easy to operate. At the same time, these areas have higher returns and less concern about costs.

At present, LED performance continues to increase, and its price also declines at the same time. This year, prices have fallen by almost half compared to 2005, and the trend will continue. It is time to get better from special market segments.

The Subsidy Purchase Policy is to be supplemented by "21st Century": How much is the current policy to promote technological progress?

Liu Shiping: First, the state has increased its input, including the 863 plan, and scientific and technological support plans. At the same time, it has also played a significant role in creating technical support platforms, laboratory construction, and standards construction. In addition, there are also selective corporate technology and financial support. The second is the demonstration project to promote the LED in the appropriate market.

"21st Century": What policy support is still lacking?

Liu Shiping: At present, LED has not yet entered the government procurement catalog. Of course, one reason is because of the lack of standards. The state should continue to increase investment in product standards and energy efficiency standards so that products can enter the national procurement catalog as soon as possible, which is good for enterprises and industries.

At the same time, LEDs should be properly introduced into indoor lighting. For example, when developing incandescent lamp elimination roadmaps, not only energy-saving lamps are replaced by incandescent lamps. In places with good economic conditions, LED replacement of incandescent lamps can be appropriately promoted to accumulate some experience.

In addition, the state has a subsidy policy when it promotes energy-saving lamps, and there should be appropriate subsidies when promoting LED into the general lighting field.