LED lighting – LaaS model
Deutsche Lichtmiete
Deutsche Lichtmiete is in the business of high-quality LED industrial lighting – from development to production all the way to rental. They are helping companies, institutions and local authorities to convert their lighting systems to be more energy-efficient. Part of this ‘Light as a Service’ model – LaaS for short – is the handling of all project management and implementation, including tailor-made planning, installation, maintenance and the replacement or repair of the LED lights. The repairable and recyclable lights are manufactured at their own site as part of an integrated closed-loop economy concept.
Award winner 2020 in the category »Service«»This rental service enables companies to make the switch to efficient lighting without a high initial investment. Longevity, straightforward maintenance and repairability – factors that were consistently borne in mind in the course of product design – favour the ecological and economic success of the business model. A persuasive interplay of product and service.«
Prof. Matthias Held
Three questions for the founder Alexander Hahn
How did the idea for this Highly Efficient LED Industrial Lighting come about?
In 2008, the film “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore inspired me to pay greater attention to sustainability in my day-to-day life. At the time, this was not a straightforward task in the field of lighting, due to expensive as well as poor products and inadequate information. The question I asked myself was: If this is a problem for private households, how hard must it be for more complex industrial lighting? I then worked on the development of a solution to this problem, which Deutsche Lichtmiete is now marketing successfully as “Light as a Service”.
What was your personal high point in the development process of Highly Efficient LED Industrial Lighting? Was there a low point?
A real high point came in 2018 with the strategic participation in Deutsche Lichtmiete by the Japanese Nichia Corporation. They are a global company and world market leader in LED chips. With capital and expertise, this inventor of the white and blue LED is participating in a young and comparatively small innovator in northern Germany. Fortunately, the low point, namely the difficulty in raising capital in the early years, is now a distant memory.
Where do you see your project in five years?
On the technical side, we are developing systems that span from modern lighting to platforms for smart factories and industry 4.0. applications, which also integrate sensors and actuators as well as data transfer for other building functions and machine control. As for our rental model, the advantages of “as a service” models, namely investment and risk-free modernisation including full service, are being recognised by an increasing number of companies, and development is only really now beginning to pick up speed.
