Shanghai plans to use a bigger range of LED devices - from plasma TVs to crop planting - to reduce energy consumption, city officials said Friday.

The plans are based on the development of the core technology of light-emitting dioxides or LEDs, a task within the citys scientific 2020 development scheme, officials of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission said.

We are trying to use LEDs to improve peoples lives in a variety of ways, Guo Yansheng, director of the commissions Hi-tech production department, said at the 2008 Shanghai International LED Industry Technology Exhibition that opened Friday at ShanghaiMart. The show will end tomorrow.

At the exhibition, the Shanghai Research Center of Engineering and Technology for Solid-State Lighting displayed its latest LED products including plasma screens, car lights and crop planting devices.

LED is an energy-saving lighting semiconductor that has great market potential over the next decade because LEDs consume only about one 10th of the power of an incandescent bulb to produce the same amount of light.

An electricity meter showed a new plasma screen made from LED uses just 50 percent of the power needed by a conventional LCD screen. The LED screen also gives a better picture although it costs about 2,100 yuan (US$300) more. Yang Weiqiao, a researcher with the , said the is now cooperating with SVA Group - the citys chief producer of electronic and information devices - to industrialize the new screens.

Hopefully, the new screens will enter the local market by 2010, he said, noting that the technology was on a par with international competitors and they were working to reduce the cost.

As well as TV screens, the also showed other LED products including car lights and lighting to produce artificial photosynthesis to stimulate crop growth.