Outdoor LED Lighting Could Be Increasing Our Overall Energy Use

The International Dark-Sky Association questions whether the efficiency of solid-state luminaires has lulled us into too much illumination.

The significant electricity savings of LED streetlights could be backfiring on the world’s efforts to curtail CO2 emissions, because as more locations rush to tap its advantages, overall consumption ironically might be exceeding earlier levels.

That is one of several concerns raised by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) in its report Artificial Light at Night: State of the Science 2022, published earlier this month.

Under a section headed, “The ‘greenwashing’ of solid-state lighting,” the report states: “Humans now consume thousands of times more lumens of light than they did in the historic past. There are now signs of what economists call a ‘re-bound effect’ in lighting. This is thought to result from the improved energy efficiency and long lifetime of SSL products. In such conditions, increased consumption of light at night erodes away the expected savings in energy use and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Some researchers now question whether SSL is truly ‘sustainable” lighting’.”