From LPW to Human Rhythms: Thirty Years After White LEDs, What New Value Is Nichia Creating?

deLIGHTed Talks Asia @ GILE 2026

Good Light Wake-Up Call Series Report 05

Kei Haraguchi / Nichia: Dynasolis™ — Moving Beyond LPW to Create New Value

If Jan Denneman‘s Wake-Up Call challenged the lighting industry to move beyond illuminating spaces toward delivering human outcomes, then Kei Haraguchi of Nichia Corporation approached the same transformation from a different perspective—the light source itself.

His keynote posed a question with profound implications for the industry: Thirty years after the invention of the white LED, can the next chapter of lighting still be defined by LPW alone?

At deLIGHTed Talks Asia @ GILE 2026, Kei Haraguchi presented: Dynasolis™: Moving Beyond LPW to Create New Value

It is a title rich with symbolism.

Nichia is not simply another LED manufacturer. Its name is inseparable from the history of the white LED and one of the technological breakthroughs that transformed the modern lighting industry.

So when a company that has spent decades advancing LED technology stands before a healthy lighting forum and declares: Moving Beyond LPW

it does not mean abandoning efficiency. Rather, it acknowledges that efficiency alone is no longer sufficient to define the value of next-generation lighting.

For decades, the evolution of LEDs has been driven by familiar goals: Higher luminous efficacy. Lower energy consumption. Longer lifetime. Lower cost.

Today, however, white LED technology has reached a remarkable level of maturity. As efficacy approaches practical limits and becomes less of a competitive differentiator, the lighting industry must begin asking a different question:

Beyond saving energy, can light also better serve people?

1. It Begins with “A Day with Minimal Sunlight Exposure”

Kei did not begin his presentation with LED specifications or performance metrics. Instead, he started with a scene that has become all too familiar in modern life:

A Day with Minimal Sunlight Exposure.

For many people, this is simply an ordinary day.

We wake up before the morning is truly bright. We commute by car or underground transit. We spend most of our day inside offices, classrooms, hospitals, shopping malls, or our homes. In the evening, we return to more artificial lighting—and more time in front of digital screens.

We often assume that we live in a brightly lit world.

Yet from the perspective of the body’s circadian system, our daytime environment may not be bright enough at all.

This observation closely echoes the themes raised by Professor Robert Lucas, Dr. Marijke Gordijn, and Jan Denneman throughout the earlier sessions of deLIGHTed Talks Asia @ GILE 2026.

One of the defining challenges of modern life is not that we lack light at night. It is that we often lack daytime light that truly resembles daylight.

Insufficient exposure to daylight has been associated with disrupted circadian rhythms, poorer sleep, and reduced daytime alertness.

Kei’s presentation summarized this challenge with a simple statement: “Lack of Sunlight Leads to Sleep Problems.”

This point deserves careful interpretation.

It does not mean that a single LED product can treat insomnia. Nor does it suggest that replacing one luminaire is enough to solve every sleep-related issue. Sleep is a complex physiological process influenced by lifestyle, stress, age, medical conditions, daily routines, mental health, and many environmental factors.

What it does mean is that the lighting industry should acknowledge an essential reality: Light—especially daytime light—is one of the most important environmental signals for maintaining healthy circadian rhythms.

As modern lifestyles keep people indoors for much of the day, electric lighting can no longer be designed solely to illuminate spaces. It must also consider how to better support the body’s need for strong daytime circadian signals.

2. Solving Insomnia May Create More Value Than Another Increment in LPW

One slide in Kei’s presentation stood out for its bold message: Solving Insomnia Delivers Greater Value Than LPW.

It is a statement that immediately captures attention.

For decades, the LED industry has spoken the language of LPW—lumens per watt.

How many lumens per watt?
How much more efficient than the previous generation?
What is the energy efficiency rating?
How much light can be produced from every watt consumed?

These questions remain important.

After all, the efficiency revolution has been one of the lighting industry’s greatest achievements over the past thirty years.

But as LED efficacy reaches increasingly high levels—and as the energy-saving gains in many applications approach diminishing returns—another incremental improvement in LPW may no longer be enough to redefine the industry’s value.

What if lighting could instead help people stay more alert during the day? Sleep better at night? Improve safety in healthcare and senior care environments? Enhance concentration, productivity, and daily well-being?

The value created for buildings, owners, healthcare providers, care facilities, and occupants could far exceed the value of incremental energy savings alone. This represents a fundamental shift: From product value to human value.

At the same time, this message should not be interpreted as an invitation to exaggerate health claims. The real point is to rethink how we measure value.

For decades, we evaluated lighting primarily in watts and lumens. In the future, we must also evaluate it through human outcomes.

Instead of asking only:

How much electricity does this luminaire save?

We should also ask:

Does this lighting environment help people stay more alert during the day?
Does it improve nighttime safety for older adults?
Does it create a less disruptive environment for hospitals and care facilities?
Does it better support circadian rhythms in workplaces and educational settings?
Can its impact be measured and verified in real-world applications?

This is the first major shift reflected in Nichia’s keynote: From LPW to human value.

3. Why 480 nm? Circadian Support Through Melanopic Sensitivity

At the heart of the Dynasolis™ technology narrative lies a single wavelength: 480 nm.

In his presentation, Kei explained that light around 480 nm—often described as azure light, resembling the blue of a clear daytime sky—can effectively stimulate intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) containing the photopigment melanopsin.

This directly connects to the scientific framework presented earlier by Professor Robert Lucas on melanopsin and melanopic metrology.

Melanopsin has its peak spectral sensitivity at approximately 480 nm.

This means that if we want to design electric lighting that better supports the body’s daytime circadian signals, it is no longer sufficient to evaluate lighting solely through traditional visual illuminance or correlated color temperature (CCT).

We must also consider the spectral components that contribute to the melanopic response.

In his presentation, Kei introduced Azure Light as a physiological approach to supporting circadian rhythms.

The key message, however, is not that “more blue light is always better.”

In fact, one of the greatest risks in healthy lighting is oversimplification.

While light around 480 nm plays an important role in circadian stimulation, its effectiveness can only be understood in the context of timing, intensity, eye-level exposure, application, and lighting controls.

During the daytime, appropriately increasing melanopic stimulation may help promote alertness and strengthen circadian entrainment.

In the evening and at night, however, excessive melanopic stimulation may delay the body’s preparation for sleep and disrupt the natural circadian cycle.

True circadian lighting, therefore, is not about continuously increasing the amount of 480 nm light.

It is about delivering the right spectrum at the right time.

This once again echoes the central message of Dr. Marijke Gordijn‘s keynote: “The right light at the right time.”

4. The Core of Dynasolis™: Azure + Warm White, Not Conventional Cool White + Warm White Mixing

The conventional approach to tunable white lighting is straightforward: Mix Cool White LEDs with Warm White LEDs to produce different correlated color temperatures (CCTs). This allows lighting to transition from cooler to warmer appearances throughout the day.

Kei’s presentation, however, introduced a different architectural approach.

Rather than combining Cool White and Warm White, Dynasolis™ is built around: Azure LED + Warm White LED

The Azure LED provides spectral energy concentrated around 480 nm, the wavelength region closely associated with melanopsin stimulation and daytime circadian support.

The Warm White LED provides a high-quality visual foundation with excellent color rendering and comfortable illumination.

Together, these two light sources do more than simply adjust CCT. They enable a spectral distribution specifically designed to enhance the melanopic response, creating lighting that more closely aligns with the physiological requirements of circadian lighting.

Kei also emphasized that Dynasolis™ is capable of maintaining:

Ra > 90
More than 90% of the luminous efficacy (LPW) of a standard LED

This is a particularly important point.

Healthy lighting cannot come at the expense of fundamental lighting quality.

If circadian stimulation is achieved by sacrificing color rendering, lighting designers are unlikely to adopt it.

If improved spectral performance comes with a significant loss of efficiency, building owners may reject it on economic grounds.

Likewise, if a light source focuses exclusively on health-related metrics while overlooking visual comfort, aesthetics, and practical energy considerations, widespread implementation becomes difficult.

What makes Dynasolis™ noteworthy is its attempt to balance several objectives that often appear to compete with one another:

Circadian support
High color rendering
High energy efficiency
Wide color temperature tunability
Practical implementation in real-world projects

This is one of the defining challenges facing healthy lighting as it moves from research into mainstream practice.

Success is no longer determined by optimizing a single performance metric.

Instead, the real challenge is whether multiple dimensions of value can be designed, delivered, and ultimately verified at the same time.

5. From CCT to Melanopic Ratio: Healthy Lighting Cannot Rely on Color Temperature Alone

In Kei’s presentation, there is a comparative chart of CCT vs. Melanopic Ratio.

The key point of this chart is to remind us: Even when discussing the same color temperature, different light sources can have different melanopic ratios. Traditional Ra ≥ 80 LEDs, standard light sources, and Dynasolis™ can show clearly different levels of circadian stimulation at the same CCT.

In other words:

6500K does not necessarily equal the same level of circadian stimulus.
4000K does not necessarily equal the same melanopic effect.
2700K does not necessarily mean “low stimulation.”

Healthy lighting cannot be evaluated by CCT alone.

This point is critically important for the entire LED industry.

Because a large portion of the market’s so-called “circadian lighting” still relies on simple warm–cool tuning:

6500K in the morning.
5000K at midday.
2700K in the evening.

This logic has directional value, but it lacks precision.

True healthy lighting requires asking:

What is the melanopic ratio of this light source at different CCTs?
How much melanopic EDI does it deliver at the eye position?
Is the spectrum stable across different dimming levels?
Is it sufficiently stimulating during the day?
Can it truly reduce stimulation at night?
Have the designed scenarios been validated in real environments?

Therefore, the value of Dynasolis™ is not only that it enables tunable color temperature.

It is that it signals a shift for the industry:

From CCT-based tuning toward melanopic-aware spectral design.

From adjusting color temperature toward spectral design guided by melanopic metrics.

6. Hospital Fall-Risk Study: Healthy Lighting Must Move into Real-World Settings

One of the most important case studies in Kei’s presentation is the inpatient fall-risk study conducted at Akashi Junshin Hospital.

The presentation reports that, compared with a fluorescent lighting environment, the proportion of inpatients experiencing falls was reduced by nearly half under a Dynasolis™ circadian lighting environment.

After accounting for risk factors such as advanced age, anti-epileptic medication, dementia-related drugs, sleep medications, and other clinical variables, the introduction of circadian lighting was still associated with an approximately 44% reduction in fall risk.

This is a notable finding.

It shifts healthy lighting from a purely photometric technology discussion into a clinical care context.

However, scientific caution is necessary here.

This was a retrospective observational study.

It demonstrates an association between the introduction of circadian lighting and a reduction in inpatient fall risk, rather than a simple proof that a single product directly caused all observed outcomes.

Fall risk in healthcare environments is highly complex. It involves multiple interacting factors, including age, disease conditions, medications, nocturnal mobility, nursing workflows, environmental safety, sleep quality, and cognitive status.

Therefore, this case should not be reduced to a simplistic conclusion such as: installing a specific lighting system prevents falls.

A more responsible interpretation is:

In a specific hospital setting, the implementation of Dynasolis™ circadian lighting was associated with a reduction in inpatient fall risk, suggesting that healthy lighting may have meaningful potential for further investigation and validation in healthcare environments.

This framing aligns with a core principle of the Good Light Wake-up Call initiative: From claims to evidence.

7. From Hospitals to Nursing Homes: The ROI of Healthy Lighting Must Be Reframed

Kei’s presentation also includes a cost–benefit and return-on-investment case from nursing homes.

This strongly resonates with Jan Denneman’s idea of moving “from €3 to €300.”

In eldercare and healthcare environments, the value of lighting cannot be evaluated based on electricity costs alone.

If a better lighting environment can improve sleep quality, reduce nighttime confusion, support daytime activity, lower fall risk, and enhance both care efficiency and residents’ quality of life, then its value may far exceed its energy cost.

In nursing homes, falls are not minor events. They can lead to hospitalization, fractures, increased care burden, rising medical costs, and significant deterioration in quality of life for elderly residents.

If healthy lighting becomes a supporting factor within care workflows, it is no longer just a lighting system.

It becomes part of the care environment.
Part of risk management.
Part of human-centered service delivery.
Part of the building’s operational value.

This represents an important transition for healthy lighting—from a product-centric view to an owner-value perspective. In this sense, the value of lighting shifts from “equipment cost” to “system-level impact across health, operations, and care outcomes.”

8. WELL Certification: Healthy Lighting Must Enter the Language of Architecture

Kei’s presentation also references the WELL Building Standard™.

This is a crucial point, as it connects lighting technology directly to the evaluative language of healthy buildings.

The presentation notes that Dynasolis™—with its Azure + high-CRI warm white combination—can support WELL features such as L03 Circadian Lighting Design and L08 Electric Light Quality, potentially contributing to relevant certification points.

L03 focuses on circadian lighting design, specifically requirements related to equivalent melanopic lux (EML) at the eye level vertical plane.
L08 focuses on electric light quality, including color rendering metrics such as Ra, R9, and TM-30.

This signals an important shift: healthy lighting cannot be positioned purely as a product feature.

It must enter the language of architecture.
The language of certification.
The language of project owners.
And the language of design and project delivery workflows.

For manufacturers, this means product documentation can no longer be limited to lm/W, CCT, and CRI.

It must also include data required for healthy building and circadian design, such as:

spectral power distribution
melanopic ratio
m-EDI / EML performance support
color fidelity and TM-30 metrics
performance across dimming levels
real-world system-level data when integrated with control systems

For designers, this means lighting selection is no longer about choosing a “healthy luminaire” in isolation. It becomes the translation of product data into spatial eye-level exposure and time-based lighting scenarios.

For building owners, this enables healthy lighting to be expressed in terms that matter operationally: WELL certification, ESG frameworks, occupant experience, healthcare and eldercare outcomes, and employee wellbeing.

This is the critical step in bringing healthy lighting into the architectural scale—where it becomes measurable, specifiable, and governable within real projects.

9. Taiwan’s LED Industry in Contrast: How to Break Through Under Dual Pressure

From an international industry perspective, Kei’s presentation is particularly thought-provoking for Taiwan’s LED sector.

Taiwan has historically been a critical node in the global LED supply chain. From LED chips, packaging, and modules to end-use products, the industry has accumulated strong engineering capabilities, manufacturing expertise, and international customer service experience over decades.

However, the pressures facing Taiwan’s LED industry in recent years are increasingly clear.

On one side, there is pressure from leading companies in Japan, the United States, and Europe—driven by technology, patents, branding, system-level solutions, and high-end application capabilities. These companies often hold stronger influence in areas such as materials, optical design, reliability, automotive lighting, specialty lighting, healthy buildings, medical applications, agriculture, display technologies, and system-integrated solutions.

On the other side, there is pressure from the LED supply chain in mainland China, characterized by scale, cost efficiency, speed, and vertical integration. In general lighting and mass-standardized product markets, price competition is extremely intense, making it difficult for Taiwanese companies to regain advantage through cost or scale alone.

This creates a dual-pressure structure:

At the top, pressure from global leaders in technology and branding.
At the bottom, pressure from mainland China’s cost and scale-driven supply chain.

If Taiwan’s LED industry continues to compete primarily in commoditized products, conventional packaging, traditional efficacy metrics, standard color temperatures, and price-based competition, the available space will continue to shrink.

So where is the breakthrough direction?

Kei’s presentation offers a meaningful direction for reflection: Moving from LPW competition toward human-centric spectral design and system-level value.

Taiwan’s LED industry does not need to pursue maximum scale across all markets and product categories. Instead, it has an opportunity to differentiate in areas that require deeper engineering integration, cross-domain validation, system applications, and international trust.

For example:

HCL-ready LEDs and modules supporting m-EDI / DER metrics
LED light engines capable of providing full spectral data and temporal lighting control information
Healthy lighting modules integrating sensing, control, and eye-level verification
Verifiable lighting environment solutions for healthcare, eldercare, offices, schools, and residential spaces
Data structures compatible with WELL, CIE S 026, IES standards, DALI systems, design software, and building platforms
High-reliability, high-consistency, small-batch, high-value professional applications
Local demonstration projects targeting aging societies, sleep health, long-term care, and medical environments

Taiwan’s advantage is not necessarily lowest cost. Rather, it lies in the ability to integrate engineering, design, healthcare, semiconductors, ICT, sensing, control systems, and international collaboration.

In other words, the key question for Taiwan’s LED industry is not:

Can we make it cheaper?
Can we increase lm/W further?
Can we keep up with the next price war?

But instead:

Can we provide more credible healthy lighting data?
Can we develop verifiable human-centric spectral modules?
Can we collaborate with healthcare, eldercare, architecture, WELL frameworks, and designers to build real-world demonstrators?
Can we evolve from LED component suppliers into enablers of healthy lighting systems?

This may be the real breakthrough path under dual pressure.

Not competing with mainland China on cost. Not directly competing with global giants on brand dominance.

But finding new value positions at the intersection of healthy lighting, circadian science, aging society needs, healthcare systems, smart buildings, and verifiable light environments.

10. Application Cases: From Healthcare and Offices to Expo Pavilions

Kei’s presentation showcases multiple application cases of Dynasolis™, including:

Akashi Junshin Hospital
Hikari Dental Clinic
Tokushima Taisho Bank
Meiwa Industries
Expo 2025 Osaka Bahrain Pavilion

These examples span healthcare, dental clinics, corporate office environments, industrial facilities, and exhibition spaces.

They collectively highlight a key point: Circadian-supportive lighting should not remain confined to laboratory research. It must be deployed in real-world environments.

However, the value of lighting differs significantly across contexts.

In hospitals, priorities may include patient safety, sleep quality, care workflows, and nighttime risk management.
In office environments, the focus may shift toward daytime alertness, cognitive performance, visual comfort, and WELL/ESG outcomes.
In clinics, patient comfort, staff working conditions, and brand experience become central.
In exhibition spaces, visitor experience, spatial storytelling, and showcasing cutting-edge technology take precedence.
In residential settings, the emphasis is often on daily rhythm regulation and sleep preparation.

The same lighting technology cannot be communicated using a single universal narrative. It must be redefined according to people, time, space, activities, and intended outcomes.

This reflects a core principle consistently emphasized in Good Light Wake-up Call:

Good light is not a single metric.
Good light is a system.
Good light is a context.
Good light is something that must be validated.
Good light is defined by human outcomes.

11. White LED in Its 30-Year Journey: From Invention to New Value

Kei’s presentation concludes with a chart illustrating the evolution of white LEDs.

From incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, high-pressure sodium lamps, mercury lamps, and halogen lamps to LEDs—and ultimately the invention and continuous improvement of white LEDs.

Today, white LEDs have developed over approximately 30 years, with luminous efficacy exceeding 230 lm/W.

This is a remarkable achievement.

However, Kei’s conclusion is clear: “Let’s leverage it to create NEW value!”

This statement is effectively a call to the entire lighting industry.

The first major value of white LEDs was energy efficiency.
The second was freedom in form factor and controllability.
The third, emerging now, may be their ability to better support human health, circadian rhythms, and overall well-being.

But this new value will not emerge automatically.

It requires light-source manufacturers to redesign spectra.
It requires luminaire manufacturers to provide complete data transparency.
It requires control systems capable of time-based operation.
It requires designers to translate systems into spatial experiences.
It requires field measurement and validation.
It requires standards bodies, WELL frameworks, healthcare, and eldercare sectors to work together.
It requires building owners to understand long-term value.

This is the new challenge of white LEDs after 30 years.

Not simply pursuing higher lm/W. But using a mature LED technology base to create higher-order human-centric value.

Conclusion: Beyond LPW Is Not Rejecting Efficiency, but Redefining Value

Kei Haraguchi’s presentation is significant because it comes from the light-source industry itself—but does not remain confined within it.

It is not simply about a product.
Not simply about a spectral concept.
Not simply a claim that light improves health.

It is fundamentally asking: After 30 years of white LEDs, how does the lighting industry create new value?

The answer is no longer LPW alone.

LPW remains important.
Efficiency remains important.
Energy saving remains important.

But the next stage of healthy lighting must also answer:

Does light support human circadian biology?
Does it maintain high visual quality?
Is it backed by verifiable data?
Can it operate within real architectural environments?
Can it connect to WELL, healthcare, eldercare, office, and residential needs?
Can it generate value that is perceptible to both owners and users?

This is the key insight behind Dynasolis™ and the broader presentation.

Moving Beyond LPW does not mean leaving efficiency behind. It means building higher-order human value on top of it.

For Taiwan’s LED industry, this is also a critical signal:

Breakthrough does not necessarily come from lower cost.
Nor from marginal improvements in specifications.

The real breakthrough may come from transforming LEDs from components into verifiable human-centric lighting systems.

The first 30 years of white LEDs illuminated the world.
The next 30 years may need to better understand the human body and its relationship with time.

From luminous efficacy to circadian value.
From products to human outcomes.
From LPW to Good Light.

This is the next step of the Good Light Wake-up Call.

Good Light Wake-up Call.