Analyst: Smart lighting market to hit $6.7M by 2018

MarketsandMarkets has released a report indicating that the smart lighting market will reach $6,747.95 million by 2018, at a CAGR of 36 per cent from 2013-2018. "Smart lighting" refers to the environment controlled by lighting control systems. Essentially, lighting control systems use factors such as occupancy, available daylight and time of day to turn lights on or off accordingly, thus providing noteworthy energy and cost savings, noted the market research firm.

There is a demand supply gap in the power sector and to overcome this problem smart lighting is a perfect solution. The demand of intelligent lighting controls for lighting is increasing in a tremendous way and this further supports the exponential growth potential of smart lighting.

Lighting control systems energy efficiency, development in electronics and sensor technology, eradication of incandescent lamps, favourable government policies and evolution of novel wireless technology are the key drivers behind the incredible growth of smart lighting market. Smart lighting control systems include LED, fluorescent lamps (FL), compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) and high intensity discharge lamps (HID). Among all the other lighting types, LED lamps offer highest growth potential which is appealing many start-ups and big players to develop smart lighting solutions such as GreenWave Reality's GreenChip-enabled light bulb, NXPs GreenChip iSSL wireless solution for LED bulbs and Philips Hue smart LED bulb. The market for various components used in the smart lighting market such as sensors, controllers and chipsets is also expected to have a high potential in the upcoming future.

The two major applications that contribute 90 per cent in overall market are commercial & industrial and public & government buildings as of 2013 and has a huge market potential that is apparent from entry of several start-ups such as Daintree Networks, Lutron Electronics, Adura Technologies, in this field to make the most use of this opportunity. As street lighting accounts for almost 40 per cent of a city's power consumption, there is a huge scope for lighting control systems.

Europe is the largest contributor in smart lighting market as of 2012 and is forecast to keep a strong position over other regions and have phenomenal growing potential in coming future followed by APAC and North America. APAC is the emerging market where countries such as China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, etc. will be the most striking future markets in smart lighting systems.