NYTimes: New pricy LED lights are worth it when all life cycle costs add up…
The Tracker has been told by clever acquaintances, more than once, that they heard that rooftop solar panels require more energy to make than they ever return as kw-hours. Also, that a Prius and its batteries are so energy-intense in manufacture they are a net green losers, and that corn ethanol takes more fossil fuel in its crop and conversion than it saves. (Answers are that solar panels are clearly on the green side of the energy ledger, ditto Priuses, but corn ethanol just barely clears the bar).
Such life cycle issues are engaging, and useful to report as they get readers to think about big pictures and interconnections. A good example is seen today in the NYTimes. Eric A. Taub reports (and essentially nobody else does) that light emitting diode or LED bulbs apparently do in fact save far more energy over their lifetimes than they consume during manufacture. They not only beat incandescents, but outdo compact fluorescents too, it says here. He qualifies the result slightly, calling this “evidence” but not proof. The reason is clear – a German lighting company that hopes to sell a lot of these lamps also did the study that concludes they are environmentally friendly.
But the reported margin by which the devices save energy is so huge that it seems likely the general conclusion will stand. The study, it says here, even took into account the energy used to put lamps made in China in ships and transport them to Germany. Plus it looked at other enviro metrics beyond energy, such as chemical pollution, water eutrophication, and more.
It’s unclear how much the things cost, but it looks like the equivalent to a 40-watt incandescent is more than $20, perhaps a lot more. Thus it’ll take some advertising genius to get them flying off the shelves. Maybe requlations that require them in new construction would prime the pump.
Grist for the Mill: OSRAM press release Aug 4, 2009 (in advance of the report) ; OSRAM LED life-cycle assessment report ;
- Charlie Petit
