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)