LED Rebate Programs Continue to Grow

www.tedmag.com
By: Craig DiLouie

According to the Consortium for Energy Efficiency, about $2 billion was available for commercial and industrial energy-efficiency programs in 2010. Today, significant rebate dollars are available to promote adoption of energy-efficient commercial lighting solutions in an estimated 71% of the United States, according to BriteSwitch (briteswitch.com), a firm that locates, optimizes, and does the paperwork to obtain these incentives.

LED technology continues to develop across virtually all commercial general lighting categories, with best-in-class products demonstrating the ability to provide similar lighting performance as conventional technology while saving energy. As a result, it is attracting an increasing level of interest from energy-efficiency programs such as prescriptive rebates. In 2013, the number of prescriptive programs available for LED products increased 51% over 2012, based on February 2013 data. “LED lighting is bigger than ever with rebate and incentive programs in the United States,” said Leendert Jan Enthoven, president of BriteSwitch. “In some programs, these new LED solutions are even favored over other existing efficient solutions such as ceramic metal halide.”

Enthoven added that, while the number of LED programs is increasing and new categories are being recognized for LED, the average rebate per LED product has been steadily falling. For example, the average rebate for LED replacement lamps de creased by 23% between 2011 and 2012 and another 8% from 2012 to 2013. “The decrease in the average rebate amount has occurred mostly to put it in line with the reduced prices customers are seeing on the LED solutions,” said Enthoven. “The combination of rapidly falling LED prices and high rebates means that many customers are able to achieve paybacks of less than a year.”

Note that many LED product rebates require Energy Star certification, Design Lights Consortium approval and listing in the Qualified Products List, or other qualification to be accepted, providing certainty the product will achieve at least a certain level of performance.

To learn more about rebates in an area, contact the local utility or support agencies such as BriteSwitch or visit the utility rebate database at dsireusa.org.

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