So now the last 60 watts light bulbs are out of the market. While some German politicians still try to lever out the EU light bulb ban, the filament fanatics are shifting their enemy image from energy saving lamps (mercury content, recycling problems, poor light quality) to the industry-favoured LED lamps (poor light quality, hazardous materials, electronic scrap). LEDs, however, are by now taking giant technological leaps. As so often in the world of green tech, the most important innovations come from small startups. One of them has even made it on this month‘s title of Wired magazine: the Switch bulb.

A fancy high performance LED that emanates a very bright and very pleasant light. In fact, it is so pleasant that it upstages the beloved light bulb at benchmark tests on every occasion. To ensure that they can do so over a long period of time, the LEDs are being cooled by a specific refrigerant, which, according to the manufacturer, is eco-friendly. The startup is financed by Vantagepoint, an investor who has already co-financed companies such as Tesla, Better Place and a multitude of further cleantech pioneers. Wired‘s readable lead story depicts the backgrounds of the novelty‘s development.

And it is not only the nerds who are over the moon with LEDs. The super nerds at Google are jumping on the bandwaggon, too and have just showcased an LED by Lighting Science, which is controllable via Android smartphones.

So, the only two things remaining for bulb lovers will be a bit of nostalgia and the appropriate book.