The United States isn’t the only one banning bulbs…
China just announced it’s phasing out incandescent bulbs over the next five years in an attempt to “make the world’s most polluting nation more energy efficient.”
They’ll begin banning imports and sales of 100-watt and higher incandescent bulbs around October 1, 2012. It will then extend the ban to 60-watt and higher bulbs on Oct. 1, 2014, and to 15-watt and higher bulbs on Oct. 1, 2016, according to The Associated Press.
Apparently, this will save China 48 billion kilowatt hours of power per year.
Of course, these bans are nothing new.
The United States and the European Union are doing it too.
In recent years, Obama said one of the new steps is to set new efficiency standards on fluorescent and incandescent lighting. “Now I know light bulbs may not seem sexy,” said Obama, “but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses.
“Between 2012 and 2042, these new standards will save consumers up to $4 billion a year, conserve enough electricity to power every home in America for 10 months, reduce emissions equal to the amount produced by 166 million cars each year, and eliminate the need for as many as 14 coal-fired power plants.
“And by the way, we’re going to start here at the White House. Secretary Chu has already started to take a look at our light bulbs, and we’re going to see what we need to replace them with energy-efficient light bulbs.”
But to understand why it’ll pay to be bullish on LED technology stocks, we have to go back to December 2007. That’s when President Bush inked an 822-page energy measure that included a future ban on 100-watt incandescent bulbs by 2012.
It was intended to make way for bulbs that use 25% to 30% less energy, lop an estimated $18 billion off annual U.S. electric bills, and cut consumer electricity usage by 60%.
Even American Technology Corporation CEO Richard Prati once said LED technology would grow “astronomically” in coming years. He even believed LED technology would proliferate like Internet companies did in the 1990s, and that LED could save consumers up to 90% on energy bills.
You want to watch stocks, like Cree (CREE:NASDAQ), Veeco (VECO:NASDAQ), and Aixtron (AIXG:NASDAQ) on the news.
