Shanghai plans to replace its landscaping lights with new
energy-saving bulbs in key areas this year including the Bund and
Yuyuan Garden, city officials said yesterday.
The plan is part of the city's goal to reduce its overall energy
consumption by 20 percent per unit of gross domestic product by
2010, compared with 2005.
"We want to reduce the city's power consumed in illumination by
90 percent or even more," Chen Mingfa, deputy general manager of
Shanghai Rainbow Optoelectronics Material, said yesterday during an
international exhibition on solid state lighting in Pudong.
Chen's company is one of the hi-tech firms supported by both
central and city governments to conduct research on the new
generation of light-emitting diodes or LED - a kind of
energy-saving lighting semiconductor.
Since 2005, the State Ministry of Science and Technology has set
aside some 12.5 million yuan (US$1.67 million) to support local
research on new types of LED devices. The goal for 2010 is a new
LED bulb that only consumes 1/15 the power of an incandescent bulb
while producing the same brightness.
Currently, an LED bulb consumes about 1/10 the power of an
incandescent bulb to reach the same brightness.
According to officials of the city's science and technology
commission, Shanghai's lighting accounts for about 15 percent of
its overall power consumption. Air-conditioning consumes about 40
percent.
Chen said the lighting will soon be replaced in Yuyuan Garden -
at a cost of more than three million yuan.
Meanwhile, new LED bulbs will also replace some of the neon and
landscaping lights around the Bund area and Zhenbei Road.
Landscaping lights around Shanghai South Railway Station have
already been replaced.
The commission officials said a mixture of new LED bulbs will be
used to illuminate the city by 2010, when the World Expo is
held.
The city also plans to use a combination of LED and solar power
for lighting in pedestrian tunnels.
However, that project might get delayed due to its high cost -
some five times more than normal lights, excluding the cost of
solar panels.
The three-day lighting exhibition, which opened yesterday, is
being held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in
Pudong.
(Shanghai Daily August 23, 2007)
