Powerhouse Racine: Cree LEDs cutting electricity demand

Cutting this country’s energy consumption would be almost as easy as flipping a light switch, if you ask Cree. Just switch all lights to LEDs. “Most people don’t realize that almost 20 percent of our country’s energy consumption comes from lighting,” said Mike Watson, Cree’s vice president of product strategy. And that can be cut by 50 percent or more by changing to light-emitting diode illumination, he said.