Led-World found that LED lighting systems enable big energy savings in supermarket refrigeration and have been getting cheaper every year.
LED system prices dropped 9% in 2008 alone and DOE's Solid State Lighting Research and Development Program projects they will fall by 50% by 2012.
In preliminary analysis released in August 2008, DOE showed that, assuming a 50% decline in LED prices, the highest standards would make sense for all supermarket refrigeration systems and would save purchasers $5 billion in net savings over 30 years.
However, for the analysis underlying today's standard, DOE rejected its own LED price estimates, instead assuming that LED prices will stay at 2008 levels forever.