Green Photonics Forum

The market for green photonic components could exceed $100 billion by 2015, according to Michael Lebby, CEO of the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA).

The Washington-based nonprofit held its Green Photonics forum this week to examine the role of optoelectronics in a sustainable future. OIDA is finding a common interest in reducing power and consumption in such diverse markets as optical communication components, LEDs, solid-state lighting and solar photovoltaic cells.

The Denver forum is the prelude to a May 2009 conference in Santa Clara called “Optomism.”

The various segments represented at the forum developed trend maps reflecting the ways that optoelectronics is enabling many aspects of the green revolution. For the first time, OIDA addressed the impact of photonics on the green movement.

From solar and solid-state lighting, to optoelectronics used in manufacturing and metrology for green products, optoelectronics is enabling or providing technology that reduces power, waste and pollution.

“While the optoelectronics industry has always focused on efficiency, mapping the broad array of green metrics can accelerate industry contributions to sustainable development,” said Lebby. “Optoelectronics will permeate all aspects of our lives, so green photonics is becoming a discipline.”

The individual industries have unique interests, but what became clear from the forum was the wide number of ways in which the various communities share interests. These include common manufacturing methods and packaging systems, metrology needs, sensing and control, green metrics like energy balance and lifecycle waste management.

Currently, lighting consumes 20 percent of electricity, television around 5 percent and data centers around 1.2 percent, growing to 4-5 percent by the end of the decade. Including signage, computer displays, other optical networking equipment, and factoring in photovoltaic technology and optical sensing for smart management, it seems that optoelectronics will have a significant impact.

Trend maps developed at the forum will provide industry guidance on advancing a green agenda while maintaining economic benefits. The OIDA trend maps and final report from the forum will be available to OIDA members in December.

For more information, visit: www.oida.org