Almost 5,000 60-watt or 80-watt LED lights are hung along roads, lawn, and dorms in the campus of Tianjin Polytechnic University. These lights are the largest LED demonstration project that can save up to more than one million yuan ($149,000) every year.

The school is the first to enjoy its own science achievement. They are cooperating with the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. For China, a country threatened by shrinking energy sources, searching for and promoting energy-saving technologies have broad market prospects and will generate a new industry. Tianjin has set up an R&D and industrial union for LED, consisting of 22 organizations including Tianjin Polytechnic University, the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin University, and Tianjin Haibo Optoelectronics Technology Co. They have initially completed the industrial research and layout, such as LED key materials and end products, and are able to produce 10,000 key materials a month.

Haibo Optoelectronics Technology Co, working with Tianjin Polytechnic University, industrialized LED lights which have been applied in many Chinese LED lighting demo projects. With national help, the company has developed China’s first LED auto headlamps, which include high beams, position lamps and turn signals. The high beams have passed a national standard test by Chinese Automotive Technology & Research Center (CATARC).

American technical teams also gathered in Tianjin and established a wafer technology company that specializes in research and industrialization of sapphire substrates. Its products have reached international standards, and even exceeded the standards of international superior products in several major indicators, such as flatness and directional accuracy. China Electronics Technolog y Group’s 46th research institute has industrialized the preparative technique of GaAs materials.

In the second half of 2008, it was able to produce 30,000 GaAs polished sections in a month, which made it the largest GaAs substrate producer in China. Through the production-university-research cooperation union, Tianjin has improved the LED industrial chain and primarily completed the industrial layout. According to Tianjin’s LED lighting demo project plan, LED lights will be installed along streets, in campuses, eco-cities, industrial parks, communities, and the International University Sports Federation.

Construction of the projects in Binhai New Area, Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, and in several industrial parks has started. Now 13 large demonstration projects have been launched in Tianjin using nearly 40,000 high-power LED lights. Tianjin aims to foster a total of 100 companies in Binhai New Area, which will achieve 10 billion yuan in industrial output and finally construct a national LED R&D and results transfer base.