Wellington - New Zealand will phase out traditional incandescent light bulbs next year as part of an energy-efficient lighting strategy that will save nearly 500 million New Zealand dollars (about 375 million US) annually by 2020, the government announced on Tuesday.

Energy Minister David Parker said that only 5 per cent of the energy used by traditional bulbs generated light - the rest was wasted as heat.

The strategy, using new energy-efficient bulbs, aims at a 20 per cent reduction in the energy consumed by lighting throughout the country by 2015.

Gordon Wiffen, commercial manager of Philips Lighting, said New Zealand was uniquely placed to lead the world in the change to energy efficient lights.

He said lighting currently accounted for 19 per cent of all the electricity used in the world and universal adoption of energy efficient lights could cut energy use by 40 per cent, saving 106 billion euros a year and equivalent to the output of 530 power plants or 1,560 million barrels of oil. (dpa)