Strategies Unlimited and PennWell will present the third annual Strategies in Light Europe conference at the M.O.C. Event Center in Munich, Germany on September 18-20, 2012. This year’s conference theme is “Growth, profitability and new opportunities for LED lighting in a challenging economy.” SIL Europe is focused entirely on the market and technology for LEDs in lighting applications, reflecting the fact that lighting is the dominant application of LEDs in Europe.
As the Light + Building trade show in April in Frankfurt amply demonstrated, the adoption of LEDs by the European lighting industry is well underway. Hundreds of companies throughout Europe are offering thousands of lighting products that incorporate LEDs as a light source, ranging from spotlights to recessed luminaires to outdoor area lights. In terms of efficacy, lumen output and reliability, LEDs have proven to be optimal light sources for multiple applications. Modules and components are widely available that dramatically reduce the barrier to entry of any lighting company that wishes to develop LED lighting products.
In spite of these developments, there remain many issues and concerns that affect the European solid-state lighting (SSL) industry. High cost remains a barrier to more rapid market adoption. Technologies for dimming and control are widely available, but implementation can be challenging. Color quality, and uniform standards for measuring it, is a widespread subject of discussion in the industry. The development and implementation of a uniform set of LED lighting quality and reliability standards throughout the EU community remains a pressing issue. All of these topics and more will be addressed at Strategies in Light Europe.
In addition to European regional considerations, issues regarding the adoption of LED lighting on a global basis will also be addressed at the conference. As observed by keynote speaker Christian Schraft, senior vice president and head of corporate strategy and marketing at Osram AG, "SSL and green lighting in general are set for growth as the lighting industry is being transformed, with government mandates underpinning the shift to higher energy efficiency. Moreover, 'light management,' which includes the transformation from switches to intelligent networks, as well as energy efficiency and quality of light, are driving market transformation into an intelligent, networked solutions business."
Keynote session
The SIL Europe main conference (there will also be pre-conference workshops and an Investor Forum ) will begin on Tuesday, September 18 with a keynote session that features several of the leaders of the European LED lighting industry. The initial presentation will be by Vrinda Bhandarkar, director of LED lighting research for Strategies Unlimited. Bhandarkar will address the factors accounting for the recent robust growth in the worldwide LED lighting market (80% in 2011), and will also provide a current market update along with a five-year forecast and an overview of the European market.
The two invited keynote speakers represent the two largest lighting companies in Europe – Osram and Philips. Both have been successful in developing worldwide markets for their conventional lighting products and both are aggressively moving to face the challenges of managing the market transformation to SSL in the coming years. The first keynote speaker will be Osram's Schraft, who will give a presentation entitled "The global lighting industry – tradition, transition, transformation." The second keynote speaker will be Guido van Tartwijk, general manager category LED systems, Philips Lighting. His presentation is entitled "The outlook for LED lighting: Challenges and opportunities."
Plenary Session
The Plenary Session on September 19 will provide a series of presentations on wide-ranging topics of general interest to the European LED lighting community. "The globalization of LED lighting'” will be the presentation topic of Jan Denneman, who is currently president of the Global Lighting Association (GLA). GLA was established in 2007 to unite on a global level the leading national and regional industry associations for lighting technology. It represents over 5000 manufacturers with a total of more than $50 billion in annual sales.
As one of the newest entrants into the global lighting market, Samsung has generated great interest in the LED lighting community. Representing Samsung at SIL Europe will be Jaap Schlejen, executive vice president, sales & marketing LED lighting, who will provide Samsung’s perspective on the LED lighting market.
A lighting designer’s view of LEDs will be provided by Alan Mitchell, CEO of Neolight, a highly respected designer who has completed multiple lighting projects with LEDs. The Plenary Session will conclude with a presentation by Paul Thurk comparing the opportunities for SSL startups in the US and Europe. Paul is the managing director of Arch Venture Partners Europe. Having participated in SSL startups from both the management and the funding side, he opened US-based Arch Venture Partners’ new European office in Dublin in 2011.
Market track
For the 1-1/2 days following the Plenary Session, the conference will be divided in to two parallel tracks: Market and Technology. The Market Track is discussed in this article, while the Technology Track will be discussed in a subsequent article in LEDs Magazine.
Opening the Market Track will be a session on European Initiatives that is designed to update attendees on the most recent Europe-wide policy measure that supports the development of SSL. It will include presentations on "Results of the EU green paper on LED lighting and future policy measures" given by a representative from the European Commission, Information Society and Media DG, Photonics Unit, and "Status of EU programs on lighting" given by Paolo Bertoldi, action leader, energy efficiency, Renewable Energy Unit, European Commission, Joint Research Centre.
New directions for LEDs in lighting
This session is designed to explore emerging topics that will affect the future of LED lighting. A new European market surveillance program that seeks to verify the labeling requirements associated with various EU directives will be discussed by Otmar Franz of the European Lamp Companies Federation. Fenella Frost of UK-based PhotonStar will give a presentation addressing the impact of new technology implementations that allow for color tuning of LED luminaires.
This session also includes a topic of keen interest to the LED lighting community that is receiving increasing attention: the impact of lighting on health and well-being (also the subject of a pre-conference workshop on September 18). A presentation entitled “The biological dimension of lighting: Enhancing people’s lives” will be given by Andreas Wojtysiak, innovation manager, light and health, Osram AG.
The development of standards for LED lighting is receiving a high level of attention in Europe as the EU continues to try to implement uniform standards across all of its member countries. Key elements of this process are the Ecodesign and Energy Labeling Regulations for Lighting Products, which will be reviewed by Andras Toth, policy officer at the European Commission. Jacob Neusink, global account manager at DEKRA Certification, will address the issues associated with the interaction of certifications. Finally, Dirk Puettjer, R&D manager at LED Linear will give a presentation on standards and norms for LED modules.
Market development and applications
This session begins with a presentation from Markus Klein, VP and general manager of SSL at Osram Opto Semiconductors entitled "The truth about the SSL market." Annetta Kelso, senior marketing manager LEDs for Philips Lighting will discuss the market transformation for LEDs in lighting and present a vision of 2015. Manuel Zarauza, managing director for Seoul Semiconductor, Germany, will provide his views on the current trends in the LED market.
Recent LED lighting project case studies provide insight into the challenges and issues, as well as the positive outcomes, associated with the introduction of SSL in to the general lighting market. In this session, Alexander Hanrath of Nualight will report on the company’s project to retrofit the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam with LED lighting. Jack Ihringer of Osram Opto will discuss a project in Portugal to provide adaptive public lighting integrated into the Evora smart grid. An evaluation of the implementation of LED lighting in the office environment, compared with conventional sources, will be presented by Andreas Cereghetti of Regent Lighting in Switzerland.
The LED replacement lamp market is the leading edge of SSL adoption in the general lighting market. Strategies Unlimited’s lighting market analyst Katya Evstratyeva will examine the current market trends, and will provide a five-year outlook for LED replacement lamps. Fang Zhou, director of the Gingko Group PTE in Singapore will present a technical, cost and market analysis of LED replacements for linear fluorescent systems. A presenter from Sharp Germany will discuss tailored multi-chip LEDs for spotlight and downlight applications. Rounding out the session, and the Market Track, will be Norbert Harkam of LEDO LED Technologie who will provide his company’s perspective on LED replacement lamps as a designer solution.
More information on Strategies in Light Europe can be found on the conference website www.sileurope.com.
