Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-06-25 Origin: Site
Recently, Norwegian lighting company Glamox announced through official channels that it has secured an order for the SPIE Nederland project in the Netherlands. According to this order, Glamox will supply a total of 1500 sets of intelligent networked LED lighting products for the IJmuiden Ver Alpha 2GW onshore substation under TenneT in the Netherlands. This batch of smart lighting fixtures will be delivered continuously in six batches, and this process will continue until October 2026. The substation is scheduled to be officially put into operation in 2029, and the implementation of this project marks the energy-saving transformation of European offshore wind power supporting infrastructure, which is accelerating beyond expectations. Affected by the ongoing geopolitical conflict in the Middle East in 2026, the prices of oil, gas, and electricity in Europe have significantly increased. This situation has also prompted many EU countries to accelerate the process of new energy infrastructure and the replacement of energy-saving lighting throughout the region. The recent export data provided by domestic customs also provides evidence for this situation: in the first quarter of 2026, China's energy-saving LED lighting products exported to Europe were steadily increasing, and the European market has become a core growth pole for domestic lighting going global.
According to the project data, IJmuiden Ver Alpha substation is the first onshore converter station in the TenneT 2GW wind power plan in the Netherlands. Its function is to convert the 525kV DC power generated by offshore wind power into 380kV AC power for integration into the grid. Not only that, this project is also the first of the 8 onshore substations of the same type planned by the Netherlands. At the same time, the German side has also begun to lay out the infrastructure construction of wind power supporting converter stations of the same specifications, which leaves a broad demand space for subsequent supporting lighting procurement. In this bidding, Glamox's winning categories cover customized LED products for all scenarios, including DALI intelligent interconnected linear lights, MAX explosion-proof industrial lights, emergency lighting equipment, tube lights, outdoor street lights, etc.
It is worth noting that as early as September last year, this company had already won a large order for the overall lighting and intelligent control system of 11 offshore high-voltage converter platforms under the same project. Its cumulative supporting lighting for offshore platform projects has exceeded 38000 sets. Domestic related lighting companies should pay attention to the trend of intelligent energy-saving lighting procurement throughout the entire industry chain, which extends from offshore platforms to onshore substations, and is now fully underway in Europe. Jerome de Jong, the General Manager of Glamox Netherlands, gave an interpretation, stating that these large orders that have landed successively on both land and sea have verified that intelligent energy-saving LED products are a necessary category for Europe's new energy infrastructure. The European renewable energy supporting lighting market is now entering a new cycle of concentrated volume.
The geopolitical energy crisis has played a key role in accelerating the energy-saving transformation in Europe this round. As a direct result of the tense situation in the Middle East in 2026, global oil and gas freight rates and supply costs have been significantly pushed up. The annual increase in TTF natural gas futures prices in the Netherlands has nearly doubled, and commercial electricity prices in Europe have also risen rapidly. This high energy cost has created a pressure effect, forcing the EU to accelerate its energy conservation transformation. The clean energy construction represented by wind power, as well as the energy-saving replacement of old lighting throughout the region, have been prioritized in the list of landing projects by European countries. Recently, the European Union has also raised its target for renewable energy installation. Key wind power countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom are intensively implementing GW level offshore wind power projects. In addition to the main body of wind turbines, there is a centralized release of energy-saving upgrade needs for offshore converter platforms, onshore substations, and supporting lighting in industrial parks and mines. Industrial grade LEDs with high energy efficiency, explosion-proof and waterproof features, and intelligent networking control have become the mandatory selection criteria in European infrastructure bidding. Traditional high-energy consumption halogen lighting and fluorescent lighting are rapidly being phased out.
From 26 years of domestic export data, it can be seen that the dividends released by Europe's energy transition have been transmitted to China's lighting manufacturing industry in a fairly direct way. The statistical data for the first quarter of 2026 provided by the General Administration of Customs shows that the overall export value of domestic lighting products is 11.4 billion US dollars. Among this total amount, the export value to the European market reached 3.1 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 8%. Its proportion in the total export value of domestic lighting has also risen to 27%. When we conducted a detailed analysis of product categories, we found that the export growth rate of industrial LED, intelligent connected lighting fixtures, and explosion-proof outdoor lighting is in a leading state, which corresponds to the procurement demand for wind power and grid infrastructure in Europe. Meanwhile, we have also observed that the output of traditional inefficient light sources is continuously shrinking, and the trend of optimizing product structure is very clear and definite. In January and February of this year, China's exports of lighting to Europe surged by over 26% year-on-year, while the growth rate of orders from Guangdong and Zhejiang, two major lighting industry clusters, to Europe exceeded 20%. Numerous domestic manufacturers received customized orders for lighting from European wind power substations and offshore platforms, which is a positive response to the bidding boom sparked by overseas projects.
The upgrading of EU energy efficiency regulations has further strengthened the barriers to the long-term export of domestically produced energy-saving LEDs. The current EU energy efficiency labels and ErP directive are constantly tightening the entry barriers for lighting products, and those low energy efficiency products are gradually being phased out of the EU market. Domestic leading lighting companies, relying on mature LED supply chains and excellent customized research and development capabilities, have formed industrial advantages worldwide in segmented fields such as intelligent DALI dimming, explosion-proof and waterproof, and marine salt spray resistant lighting, and can accurately match the non-standard customization needs of European wind power infrastructure. At present, many specialized and innovative lighting manufacturers in China have passed EU certifications such as CE and LVD, and have successfully entered the supply chain of local engineering companies in Europe, gradually replacing orders from European and American brands in some segmented fields.
In the short term, the uncertainty of energy in the Middle East will continue to keep European energy prices running at high levels. The cycle of new energy infrastructure and energy-efficient lighting replacement in Europe will continue for at least another 3 to 5 years as a result. It is reported that coastal countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium will soon launch dozens of GW level onshore substations and offshore converter platforms, and the lighting equipment involved in these projects will also start bidding one after another. From a medium to long term perspective, under the market trend formed by the implementation of the EU's carbon neutrality policy, the penetration rate of smart energy-saving LEDs in industries such as industry, power grids, and wind power in Europe will continue to rise. For domestic lighting companies, what they need to do is to rely on their own technological advantages, continue to deepen their expertise in special fields such as industrial explosion-proof and marine special lighting, accelerate the promotion of EU compliance certification for their products, seize the window period of European energy transformation, and continue to tap into overseas incremental markets.
