Lighting Science Group, who is the world’s leading premier LED lighting manufacturer, announced earlier this month that it has received more than $100 million of LED lighting orders in the last year alone.

This highlights an astounding increase of more than 100% on last year.

Chairman of Lighting Science Group commented, “Surpassing the $100 million order mark this year is not only a significant achievement for our company, but for the entire LED lighting industry.”

The company announced that their LED products are being used in all manner of industries. This includes the International Space Station right through to the Time Square ball through to LED stage lighting in theatres in London and New York. Cities all across the globe are also using LED technology. Even homes are switching to LED technologies instead of traditional tungsten bulbs and lighting methods.

But why the massive surge in interest?

LED technology delivers substantial savings to people because they last longer, give off a bright light, and use less energy. This means they don’t get as hot as traditional lighting methods, a benefit that end users value as it means that the stage area is less hot for actors and staff in the theatre, as well as being safer on the whole.

LED stands for Light emitting diode. They were introduced as a practical lighting component back in 1962. An LED releases energy in the form of photons, and the subsequent effect is called electroluminescence. Infra-red LEDs are used in remote controls which are used for products like TVs, DVD players, alarm clocks and so on.

LEDs are designed to operate on no more than 30-60mW of electrical power. They are beneficial because they can emit high lighting brightness. They are more efficient per watt than regular incandescent bulbs which is a great benefit to any company that needs to use a large volume of lighting products in their business – like a hairdressing salon or a museum.

LEDs can come in various light colours, from red to blue to green and so on. They can be quite small in size, sometimes smaller than 2mm. They are sued for circuit boards and many electronic engineers will be highly familiar with their use within a circuit board. LEDs can be dimmed by lowering the current, and they are unlikely to fail suddenly like traditional bulbs. They have a long lifetime; a report suggests this could be up to 50,000 hours of use.