Recently, Norwegian lighting company Glamox officially announced that it has secured an order for the SPIE Nederland project in the Netherlands. Under this order, Glamox will supply 1,500 sets of smart, networked LED lighting products for the IJmuiden Ver Alpha 2GW onshore substation, owned by TenneT in the Netherlands. These smart lights will be delivered in six batches, continuing until October 2026. The substation is scheduled to be operational in 2029. The implementation of this project signifies that energy-saving retrofitting of offshore wind power infrastructure in Europe is progressing faster than expected. Affected by the ongoing geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East in 2026, oil, gas, and electricity prices across Europe have risen sharply. This situation has prompted many EU countries to accelerate the construction of new energy infrastructure and the replacement of lighting with energy-efficient lighting across the board. Recent export data from Chinese customs also corroborates this trend: in the first quarter of 2026, my country's exports of energy-saving LED lighting products to Europe were steadily increasing, and the European market has become a core growth engine for Chinese lighting products going global.
According to project information, the IJmuiden Ver Alpha substation is the first onshore converter station in the Netherlands' TenneT 2GW wind power plan. Its function is to convert the 525kV DC power generated by offshore wind power into 380kV AC power for grid connection. Furthermore, this project is the first of eight similar onshore substations planned in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Germany has also begun constructing similar wind power converter station infrastructure, creating ample demand for subsequent lighting procurement. In this tender, Glamox won bids covering a full range of customized LED products for various scenarios, including DALI smart interconnected linear lights, MAX explosion-proof industrial lights, emergency lighting equipment, downlights, and outdoor streetlights.
It's worth noting that as early as September last year, this company had already secured a large order for the overall lighting and intelligent control system for 11 offshore high-voltage converter platforms under the same project. It has provided over 38,000 sets of supporting lighting for offshore platform projects. Domestic lighting companies should take note: a wave of intelligent energy-saving lighting procurement, extending from offshore platforms to onshore substations, is sweeping across Europe. Jerome de Jung, General Manager of Glamox Netherlands, offered an interpretation, stating that these large orders, landing successively on both land and sea, validate that intelligent energy-saving LED products are a necessity for European new energy infrastructure. The European renewable energy lighting market is now entering a new cycle of concentrated volume growth.
The geopolitical energy crisis has played a key role in accelerating this round of energy-saving renovations in Europe. 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 price of Dutch TTF natural gas futures has nearly doubled this year, and industrial and commercial electricity prices in Europe have also risen rapidly. This high energy cost has created a forcing effect, compelling the EU to accelerate its energy conservation transition. Clean energy construction, represented by wind power, and the replacement of outdated lighting across the board have been prioritized in the project lists of European countries. Recently, the EU has also raised its renewable energy capacity targets. Major wind power countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK are intensively implementing GW-level offshore wind power projects. In addition to the main wind turbines, the demand for energy-saving upgrades of offshore converter platforms, onshore substations, and supporting lighting in industrial parks and mines is being released in a concentrated manner. Industrial-grade LEDs with high energy efficiency, explosion-proof and waterproof features, and intelligent network management have become a mandatory selection standard in European infrastructure tenders. Traditional high-energy-consuming halogen and fluorescent lighting are being phased out at an accelerated pace.
Data from China's export sector in 2026 shows that the benefits of Europe's energy transition have been directly transmitted to my country's lighting manufacturing industry. Statistics from the General Administration of Customs for the first quarter of 2026 indicate that China's total lighting product exports reached US$11.4 billion, of which US$3.1 billion was exported to Europe, representing an 8% year-on-year increase and accounting for 27% of total domestic lighting exports. Further analysis of product categories reveals that industrial LEDs, smart connected lighting fixtures, and explosion-proof outdoor lighting are leading the export growth, corresponding to the procurement needs of European wind power and grid infrastructure. Simultaneously, we observe a continued decline in exports of traditional, inefficient light sources, indicating a clear trend towards product structure optimization. In January and February of this year, my country's lighting exports to Europe surged by over 26% year-on-year. The order growth rates for the two major lighting industry clusters in Guangdong and Zhejiang exceeded 20%, with numerous domestic manufacturers receiving customized orders for lighting systems for European wind power substations and offshore platforms. This phenomenon, coupled with the bidding frenzy surrounding overseas projects, creates a positive feedback loop.
The upgrading of EU energy efficiency regulations has further solidified the barriers to the long-term export of domestically produced energy-saving LEDs. The current EU energy efficiency labeling and ErP directive are continuously tightening the entry threshold for lighting products, gradually eliminating low-energy-efficiency products from the EU market. Leading domestic lighting companies, relying on their mature LED supply chain and excellent customized R&D capabilities, have established industrial advantages worldwide in niche areas such as intelligent DALI dimming, explosion-proof and waterproof, and marine salt spray resistant lighting, and are able to accurately match the non-standard customized 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 European engineering companies, gradually replacing European and American local brands in some niche areas of orders.
