LED lighting, ultra-low-power lighting schemes for new lighting applications

In 2018, Solid-State Lighting (SSL) can totally outperform, if properly designed, most of other lighting products used for general lighting applications. This concerns various attributes such as luminous efficacy, life, spectral qualities, dimming potential, and more and more total cost of ownership. SSL can also mimic a large variety of reference light sources from candlelight to sunlight. The absence of international standards concerning LED modules remains the major difficulty for luminaire manufacturers and their clients, since perfectly matching replacement of ever-changing LED modules is not guaranteed over time. But extraordinarily innovative lighting schemes can be developed, bridging the gap between the world of entertainment and the world of general lighting, and leading to new lighting schemes with more powerful emotional content. LED sources, mostly DC driven, also can benefit from progress in photovoltaics and batteries, as well as wireless control to offer integrated solutions. This could radically change the operation of lighting in the next 10 years. (C) 2017 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.