LED street lamps installed in China are expected to grow 43% on year to 500,000 units in 2011, buoyed by the government's promotion policy and the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan. LED tunnel lamps are expected to be an important growth driver.
The Chinese government's program to install 10,000 LED street lamps each in 10 cities commenced in 2009, and attracted more than 1,000 companies to enter LED street lamp development by the end of 2009. Program execution, however, was much slower than expected and many companies discovered later on that the so-called 10,000 units also included luminaires for landscape and consumer outdoor lighting applications. Actual street lamp installation totaled a mere 220,000 units for the year and only 2-3 cities reached the 10,000 unit mark.
Though the LED street lamp program still lacked a uniformed direction in 2010, installation began to increase in 2010. According to statistics from China-based research firm GLII, over 10 cities, which included Guangzhou, Ningbo, Dongguan and Yangzhou, installed more than 10,000 LED street lamps in 2010. Guangzhou took first place with 48,000 units and overall installation for the country reached 350,000 units.
China's National Development and Reform Committee NDRC kicked off an LED luminaire development program in the second half of 2010. Under the initiative, NDRC will support 20 demonstrative projects for indoor lighting applications and 15 each for street lamps and tunnel lamps across the country. With the central government taking the lead, industry observers believe participating companies should see positive brand and company exposure. The price difference of LED street lamps and conventional energy-saving lamps will narrow in the first half of 2011 thanks to capacity expansion along the LED supply chain to realize economy of scale, the observers added.
A national-level standard for LED street lamps is unlikely to be ready in the short term, but LED street lamp installation should reach 500,000 units in 2011, the observers said, noting that with a standard expected to be finalized in 2012, the street lamp market will increase exponentially.
Currently, technology for tunnel lamps is comparatively more matured in the high-power, outdoor lighting sector. In 2010, about 120,000 tunnel lamps were installed, a 50% gain from 2009. With the next five-year plan placing strong emphasis on the construction of railroads and tunnels, LED street lamps will be an important growth driver in the coming years.
