A recent IMS Research forecast has predicted continuing large-scale adoption of LED lighting across the globe is set to save $100 billion (£64 billion) in worldwide energy costs over the next five years.

The report, based on industry interviews with leading figures and suppliers, predicts rapid growth in demand and conversion to LED lighting - both in residential and commercial settings - is set to generate a market of more than four billion units by 2016. And should the large-scale adoption continue as IMS has predicted, 15 per cent of all of the lighting on the market will be based on LEDs by the end of the decade.

As report co-author and senior market analyst Ryan Sanderson noted, the monetary figure is only one side of wholesale adoption: as the effect on CO2 emissions and energy usage worldwide could be significant.

"The environmental impact that global adoption of LED lighting will have is colossal," said the expert. "Lighting accounts for approximately 19 per cent of the world's energy use at present. IMS Research predicts that in 2016 around 15 per cent of all lighting will be accounted for by LED, which would reduce global energy consumption of lighting by around 20 per cent."

Using a fraction of the power of incandescent lamps, retrofit LED lamps provide a similar luminescence with a significant energy saving. As IMS predicts, 2012 alone should see adopting of LED bulbs save more than 30 gigawatt hours worldwide, and by 2016 that figure will have multiplied to a 300 GWe saving. Over five years, the cumulative total should reach 800 GWe saved.

"To generate the 800 GWe of energy in 2016 years you would need to run more than 50 nuclear power stations at full capacity," said Jonathon Eykyn, co-author of the report. "At a time when the world is struggling to balance the use of more sustainable power sources with the need to provide access to low cost power sources to support economic growth, LED lighting could be a large part of the solution."