GE LIGHTING, the lighting business of General Electric, has introduced its award-winning ERS LED (light emitting diode) scalable streetlighting range of luminaires to the Middle East to provide energy-efficient roadway lighting. 

The ERS LED scalable fixture has a modular LED system starting from 43 W to 258 W that meets a wide range of road and streetlighting requirements. It offers outstanding GE optics technology (reflectors) which ensures maximum energy saving with improving visual conditions. Each wattage has 10 different optics for wide applications, with two different colour temperature options (CCT), according to a spokesman for GE Lighting. 

The LED system recently earned a ‘best-in-class’ designation in the roadway lighting category in the 2012 Next Generation Luminaires (NGL) Solid-State Lighting Design Competition. Sponsored by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the International Association of Lighting Designers, the NGL awards were created to recognise excellence in energy-efficient LED commercial lighting unit design. 

Dynamic design, system efficacy, optics efficiency, and wattage varieties were key facets that won the recognition for the ERS LED luminaires, the spokesman says.

The product is part of GE’s ecomagination business initiative that builds on the company’s commitment to imagine and build innovative lighting solutions that solve today’s environmental challenges and benefit customers and society at large.

George Bou Mitri, GE Lighting’s general manager of the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, says: “With the region focusing on infrastructure development including new bridges and streets, the provision of energy-efficient roadway lighting is gaining even more importance.This is particularly relevant with demand for power increasing with the rise in population and the development of new projects. GE Lighting’s new ERS LED fixture is an ideal fit for the region’s streetlighting solutions, ensuring uniformity, low maintenance costs, promoting energy efficiency and improving the lighting ambiance.” 

GE Lighting – which has its regional distribution centre located in Dubai, UAE, and a strong regional footprint in indoor and outdoor lighting in the Middle East – has been emphasising the importance of energy-efficient lighting solutions to support the region’s focus on sustainable development.

The company recently organised a roundtable in Dubai to discuss the sustainability challenges in the lighting sector and underline the need to optimise solutions for design, operation, and control efficiency, which contribute to lighting solutions that meet specific purpose and behaviour, and promote cost savings.

Entitled ‘Lighting the path to 2030: opportunities and obstacles for the adoption of sustainable lighting’, the discussion was attended by experts from governmental departments, civil society, and private sector including designers and architects. It served as a platform for all stakeholders in the industry to promote sustainability and find solutions for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly LED lighting in the construction sector, from new projects to retrofits.

The key panel speakers at the event included Solaiman Al Rifai, director of project finance, Dubai Carbon; Sarfraz Dairkee, founding member of Emirates Green Building Council; Moheet Vishwas, lead systems specialist at Infratech; P R Jagannathan, sustainability director at Jafza; and Siddharth Mathur, design director at Studio Lumen.

The discussion centred on the use of LED lighting solutions, which are being increasingly used across the region for its economic advantages, energy efficiency and aesthetic value. The session focused on aspects including LED transition, the role of lighting in public spaces to raise awareness of energy-efficient solutions, the role of the public sector in setting the agenda for energy-efficient lighting, the obstacles in implementation, and challenges in adopting LED, among others. 

Agostino Renna, president and CEO of GE Lighting Europe, Middle East and Africa says: “With lighting accounting for a significant part of energy use, both for domestic and commercial purpose, it is important to shift the approach on lighting from treating it as a disposable commodity to a strategic asset. This calls for a different level of due diligence and decision-making that focuses on the purpose, economics, and behaviour of the lighting devices used.”

“An ideal model for sustainable lighting solutions is to adopt systems that provide the highest level of lighting quality at the lowest level of operating cost. An outcome-based commercial model of lighting, developed through partnerships with key stakeholders, will be of particular value in meeting the outdoor and infrastructure-related lighting needs,” he adds.

Quoting a study by McKinsey on LED technology, GE states that through the collaboration of manufacturers, retailers, and regulators, the barriers in its adaptation can be tackled, with the potential for LED lighting to dominate the market by 2015. 

The study says that LED is an environmentally and economically superior technology; LED bulbs, the report says, can generate more than 100 lumens per watt of electricity, compared with 60 to 75 for CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps), while lasting three to five times longer. With no mercury in it, their disposal is safer, and can contribute up to 80 per cent in energy savings. However, the value share of LED, despite its advantages, was only about five per cent in the whole of the Middle East and Africa in 2011. 

Sustainability under discussion ... GE Lighting’s roundtable in Dubai.

Bou Mitri comments: “We strongly believe that LED is the future of lighting solutions in the region, especially with demand for power growing in tune with the population growth and infrastructure development.”

He adds that with a growing footprint in providing energy-efficient and advanced LED lighting solutions in the Middle East region, GE Lighting is focused on delivering end-user value, covering all aspects such as lighting design, financial modelling, outcome-based solutions, installation, maintenance, and market intelligence.

General Electric, which was born from the invention of the world’s first affordable incandescent lamp a century ago, continues to develop new technologies such as fluorescents and LEDs that operate with more efficiency, less cost and less environmental impact than ever before. 

GE Lighting is part of Appliances and Lighting, which spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliances, lighting, systems and services for commercial, industrial and residential use. Technology innovation and the company’s ecomagination initiative enable GE Appliances and Lighting to aggressively bring to market products and solutions that help customers meet pressing environmental challenges. 

GE Lighting has a rich history in the Middle East having established a long-standing business association with more than 70 key partners over the past several decades. The company established its full-fledged team in the region 15 years ago, and today has several professionals driving the operations.