You may not know it, but LED lighting is already in use in an astonishing array of locations and applications. Color-changing LED lighting is currently illuminating architectural landmarks and signature buildings worldwide. Full-color LED lighting is in extensive use in theatres, concerts, stage productions, restaurants, casinos, and other public spaces calling for dramatic and dynamic lighting displays.

Fixed-color and white-light LED fixtures support the full range of outdoor lighting applications, including road and tunnel lighting, sports and arena lighting, street lighting and area lighting, landscape lighting, signage, and airport runway lighting. Well-designed retrofit lamps in a variety of form factors deliver many of the benefits of LED technology to existing lighting systems and infrastructures.

LED white light has already achieved light output, color quality, color rendering, and energy efficiency that far surpasses incandescent sources, and that rivals or surpasses fluorescent sources. White-light LED fixtures in widespread use include cove lights, task lights, and downlights for retail spaces, museums, offices, schools, laboratories, hospitals, and private residences. With the current push to limit or phase out energy-wasteful incandescent lamps in over 40 countries by 2014 — including the EU-27, Russia, Canada, and the United States — energy-saving alternatives will become not only desirable but necessary. LED light sources afford double the energy savings of CFLs, contain no lead or mercury, and offer a level of flexibility and control that no other type of light can match.

Because of its unique capabilities, LED lighting is leading the lighting industry in its ongoing effort to develop truly green, sustainable solutions and market them affordably. As costs come down, new standards, green initiatives, and government directives are creating an enormous opportunity for the adoption of LED lighting around the world.