AirCarbon Exchange (ACX) inks a deal with C-Quest Capital (CQC) for the first-ever auction of carbon credits worth 300,000 generated from LED light bulb projects.
Singapore-based ACX is the world’s first carbon negative digital exchange platform for airlines to trade carbon credits. It’s using the distributed ledger technology of a traditional commodities trading system while leveraging blockchain to create securitized carbon credits.
Washington-based CQC is one of the top project developers that seeks to transform the lives of families in poor communities.
CQC creates high impact carbon credits under 3 platforms:
- Cleaner cooking,
- Sustainable energy, and
- Efficient lighting.
The deal will leave a significant mark on the role of auctions in the carbon market.
ACX was named Environmental Finance’s Best Carbon Exchange for 2022, while CQC won the Best Project Developer for Energy Efficiency.
The partnership between the two firms will create the first-ever LED bulb carbon credits.
What are LED Carbon Credits?
As the name says, LED carbon credits are from projects that use LED light bulbs instead of incandescent lamps. The corresponding carbon offsets are based on the reduced energy use of the LED bulb over its lifetime.
Replacing incandescent or gas-discharge-based lamps with solid-state lighting (LED) is the most successful approach to curbing CO2 emissions from public and private lighting, according to the International Society of Optical Engineering.
Lighting accounts for a significant share of total electric power consumption worldwide.
How LED can offset carbon emissions?
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, use of LEDs in the U.S. by 2027 can save about 348 terawatt hours of electricity. That’s in comparison with the consumption of electricity without using LED bulbs.
- Also, saving even 1 kilowatt hour of electricity prevents about a pound of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
That is equal to a reduction of 320 billion pounds or 160 million tons of CO2 emissions in the U.S.
The ACX and CQC LED Project
The LED carbon credits for auction by ACX will be from the Efficient Lighting projects of CQC in India.
- There are 14.5 million inefficient incandescent bulbs replaced by efficient and long-lasting LEDs in about 3 million households.
The project recipients are in the most rural and poorest areas in India. It benefits the local residents with cheaper lighting, energy efficiency, and higher quality lighting.
The more efficient LED bulbs also make studying and working at home much easier.
CQC certifies the project and verifies the carbon credits under Verra’s methodology AMS-II.C. or the Efficient Lighting Technologies.
The project also offers co-benefits and qualifies for 7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
CQC performs robust audits and checks to ensure best practice and quality. The firm provides a 3-year warranty compared to the standard 1-year available in the market.
Each household is also given a unique ID to avoid the issue of double counting using cloud data management to track the use of LED lighting.
Doing all these are vital for project evaluation, verification, and improvement.
This LED project offers two-fold benefits:
- Local people in rural areas will enjoy big savings from reduced electricity bills and access to efficient and quality lighting
- The whole nation benefits from the significant reduction in energy consumption due to massive switchover to LED
Shifting to energy-efficient lighting will decrease the energy load on a grid system that largely relies on coal.
In turn, this also lowers India’s carbon emissions while reducing its dependence on coal as it invests in cleaner energy sources and seeks to have 500 GW of renewables by 2030.
The newest auction for LED carbon credits from CQC Indian project is part of the goal of ACX to bring more awareness about carbon projects. It comes after the Exchange’s successful auction of micro-mobility credits from a bike sharing scheme in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The LED carbon credits auction will be this coming November 1 and 2, 2022.
