OLED could cut 2.5 million tonnes of annual emissions

LOMOX, a Welsh company which developed the organic LED (OLED) lighting technology, has been granted a £454,000 funding by the Carbon Trust.

OLED has a wide range of potential applications. For example, a film coated with OLED could be utilized to create light-emitting wallpapers, eliminating the need for light bulbs.

The lighting technology only needs a very low 3V operating voltage. It can be powered by batteries or solar panels, making it also ideal for applications such as traffic warning signs where power supply is not available.

Lighting in office buildings accounts for one-sixth of the UK’s total electricity use. LOMOX’s OLED technology guarantees 2.5 times more efficiency than traditional energy-saving bulbs. Figures estimated that by replacing current lighting technologies with OLED, the annual global emissions would be cut  by more than 2.5 million tonnes by 2020 and almost 7.4 million by 2050 – nearly equal to the yearly greenhouse emission of Birmingham or one-fourth of Wales’ produced carbon gas.

The Welsh company targets to have OLED used in lighting products by 2012. It also plans to promote the technology for creating more energy-efficient TV screens.

Carbon Trust’s Director of Innovations, Mark Williamson, said that lighting is a main producer of carbon emissions. OLED has the possibility to generate efficient lighting alternative for a wide variety of applications.

Ken Lacey, CEO of LOMOX, was pleased to work with Carbon Trust in developing the green technology. He said that OLED can be used for lower energy lighting and TV display applications. Lacey further added that OLED is more cost-effective to produce and does not suffer oxidation defect, resulting in substantially longer life time.