Carnegie Science Center Podcast

  Solid-State Lighting: Energy-Efficient Alternative? Professor Robert F. Davis Department of Materials Science and Engineering Carnegie Mellon University In the future, when we flip a light switch, could it turn on a solid-state light, rather than an incandescent or fluorescent bulb? Incandescent and fuel-based lamps convert less than 5 perfect of the energy they consume into visible light; the remainder emerges as heat. Fluorescent lamps achieve a conversion efficiency of about 30 percent. Each is an engine for converting the earth’s energy resources mostly into waste heat, pollution, and greenhouse gases. The increasingly precious energy resources and the significant threat of climate change demand that we reduce the energy and environmental cost of artificial lighting. Solid-state lighting is the direct conversion of electricity to visible white light using semiconductor materials and light emitting diodes. It has the potential to be the much-needed energy efficient technology of the future. Currentl