Lights go out over Europe

“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

So remarked the statesman and foreign secretary Edward Grey to a friend one evening some 95 years ago. He was of course referring to the outbreak of the First World War, but the same could be said this week of the traditional light bulb.

For the popular 100W GLS source – along with most frosted lamps – is being banned across Europe next week. And despite hopes that scientists will eventually be able to create a cost-effective, energy efficient incandescent lamp, I suspect we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime – unless you’re one of the many people with a stash under the stairs of course.

Whatever the arguments over the ban, we will have to get used an incandescent-free world by 2016. If you’re one of those who laments its passing, comfort yourself with a statistic from the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford. It calculates that by 2040, the electrical energy consumed by lighting will be a mere 10 per cent of what it is today. And that’s with a predicted increase in demand of 70 per cent.

If we accomplish that, it will be achievement of which the industry can be proud.

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