Shipments of LED lamps and luminaires for commercial buildings are expected to total 10.7 billion from 2014 to 2023, according to a new study from Navigant Research, Chicago. The shift to LEDs is expected to be most dramatic in luminaires used for retrofit projects. The report, titled “Energy Efficient Lighting for Commercial Markets,” analyzes the global market for lighting in commercial buildings, including global market forecasts for unit sales, shipments and revenue through 2023.
“Long term, it’s possible that LEDs could trigger a fundamental change in the way lighting is provided to commercial spaces,” says Jesse Foote, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “The traditional lamp/luminaire model could be replaced by products that integrate the two, and even the concept of providing light through fixtures in the ceiling could shift, as flat and flexible LEDs allow for more creative designs that can be incorporated into other building materials and placed in nontraditional locations.”
LED use in commercial applications is expected to be most apparent in retrofit projects, where older lighting is often replaced specifically to improve efficiency, according to the report. Although research indicates that only 15 percent of lamps sold to retrofit projects worldwide in 2014 were LED-based, that share is expected to grow to nearly 74 percent by 2023, potentially eliminating inefficient technologies like incandescent and halogen.