An LED-based lighting system will reduce energy usage and operational costs for software company SAP, but it was not the most effective green technology that the company installed.

Solid-state LED lighting was identified as the second-best "green" technology among a range of energy-saving retrofits installed by SAP, a global supplier of business software, at its campus in Palo Alto, California.

According to an article on the Greentech Enterprise website, SSL was runner-up to…video conferencing. The company spent $300,000 on three "telepresence" systems, but these will save $300,000 in the first year alone in reduced travel costs.

The SSL system, comprising 337 LED fixtures from Lunera connected via a network from Redwood Systems, cost $434,000 and is expected to achieve annual savings of $80,000.

A $1.2-million solar array took third place, and retrofitting the data center to run on DC power came in fourth.

“Becoming a sustainable enterprise involves connecting a network of innovative, sustainable initiatives, and our campus in Palo Alto serves as a great test center for initiatives that we will consider introducing in other SAP locations,” said Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer, SAP.

Redwood Systems, based in Fremont, CA, has supplied its Redwood Engines to control and power the LED lighting installed in SAP Labs’ buildings in Palo Alto, and these will enable SAP to save energy and reduce operational costs.

“Redwood Systems is essential to [SAPs] overall effort in helping us execute on our energy-efficiency efforts, while contributing to a state-of-the-art work environment at SAP Palo Alto," said Graf. "Between our investment in LEDs and light controls, we expect to achieve approximately $80,000 in annual operational savings, save 70 tons in carbon footprint each year, and see a return on our investment in 5 years."

Redwood says that its technology will enable SAP to maximize its investment in LED lighting by leveraging its unique, digital properties. The result for SAP is a simplified solution to lighting management, consisting of scheduling, daylight harvesting, individual task tuning, and motion and occupancy sensing.

While LED luminaires can substantially reduce the typical lighting energy profile, there is an increasing understanding that even greater gains can be achieved by coupling LEDs with intelligent dimming, scheduling, occupancy and daylighting controls.

Redwood’s technology addresses this by combining power and control over the same low-voltage network. This allows for much greater accuracy and responsiveness, and further reduces the energy load while providing greater insight into the way the building is operating in real time.

About the Author 

Tim Whitaker is the Editor of LEDs Magazine.