Research Targets 40-Percent Reduction in Power Consumption of Interior LED Lighting

Neubiberg, Germany – September 6, 2011 – Germany’s annual power consumption is approximately 500 terawatt-hours (TWh) or 500 trillion watt-hours, with lighting accounting for almost 12 percent of that figure. Even today, as much as 11.5 TWh or 20 percent of the electricity needed for lighting could be saved in Germany alone if incandescent lamps were consistently replaced by more energy-efficient LED (Light-Emitting Diode) technologies. The potential saving is equivalent to the annual output of a large-scale power plant.

Over the coming three years, Germany’s seven partners of the “EnLight” (Energy Efficient and Intelligent Lighting Systems) research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) aim to further reduce energy consumption by up to an additional 40 percent compared to today’s LED systems. The partners from industry and research are shouldering about Euro five million or approximately 45 percent of the project costs. Contributions of around Euro 4.1 million and Euro 2 million are made by the BMBF and the European Union, respectively. The EnLight project partners, alongside the German project leader Infineon Technologies AG, are BJB GmbH & Co KG, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Insta Elektro GmbH, NXP Semiconductors GA GmbH, Osram AG and RWTH Aachen University.

Targeting efficient interior LED lighting solutions

EnLight aims to exploit the full potential of LED-based lighting for saving further power through groundbreaking innovations in the LED lighting modules that include the LED and the driver electronics. The research is leveled at areas including changes to the socket standards. For example, at present the E27 base – the standard base of incandescent lamps across Europe – is not designed to be operated with light management systems, as is necessary for improved energy efficiency. Another goal pursued by EnLight is to develop programmable controls and innovative sensors for intelligent LED lighting solutions. In addition, the aim is for intelligent wireline and wireless networking of LED lighting systems and for enabling their energy-optimized operation to save as much as 40 percent electricity. The project will also explore entirely new light functions: On the basis of EnLight research, LED light sources will be able to automatically adapt their brightness to the ambient light.

The German partners’ work is integrated into the European ENIAC Joint Undertaking project “ EnLight”, headed by Philips. The European joint research project brings together 30 partners from six countries whose collaboration will further strengthen Europe’s leading global position in the lighting system sector.

Information on the project is available at http://www.enlight-project.eu  

Press contacts

BJB GmbH & Co. KG
Albert Pruenster
Phone: +49 (2932) 982-325
E-Mail: albert.pruenster@BJB.com  
www.bjb.com  

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
IZM Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration
Georg Weigelt, Public Relations
Phone: +49 (30) 46403-279
E-Mail: georg.weigelt@izm.fraunhofer.de  

ENAS Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems
Dr. Martina Vogel, Media Relations
Phone: +49 (371) 45001-203
E-Mail: martina.vogel@enas.fraunhofer.de  

IIS EAS Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, Design Automation Division
Sandra Kundel, Public Relations
Phone: +49 (351) 4640-809
E-Mail: pr@eas.iis.fraunhofer.de  
www.fraunhofer.de  

Insta Elektro GmbH
Joachim Nowicki, Product Management & Services
Phone: +49 (2351) 936-4711
E-Mail: j.nowicki@insta.de  
www.insta.de  

Osram AG
Christian Boelling, Media Relations
Phone: +49 (89) 6213-2597
E-Mail: c.boelling@osram.com  
www.osram.de  

NXP Semiconductors GA GmbH
Sonja Maue, Marketing Communications, General Application
Phone: +49 (40) 5613-2718
E-Mail: sonja.maue@nxp.com  
www.nxp.com

RWTH Aachen University
Lukas Lohaus, Chair of Integrated Analog Circuits and RF-Systems
Phone: +49 (241) 80 27762
E-Mail: lukas.lohaus@ias.rwth-aachen.de  
www.ias.rwth-aachen.de  and www.rwth-aachen.de  

Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, mobility, and security. In the 2010 fiscal year (ending September 30), the company reported sales of Euro 3.295 billion with approximately 26,650 employees worldwide. With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the U.S. from Milpitas, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore, and in Japan from Tokyo. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX) and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier (ticker symbol: IFNNY). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

¹Mentioned number of employees contains about 3,075 employees of the wireless mobile phone business (Wireless Solutions), which was sold to Intel Corporation.