News Updates for the Week of November 28

 

1.     Switching to Efficient Lighting - Shopping for energy-efficient lighting can now be as quick as screwing in a light bulb. These apps not only help you find a light bulb that fits your lighting needs, but also calculate savings from replacing your current bulb and estimate the payback period:  CFL Light Bulb Savings Calculator for CFL options, EnerSave for LED options, Light Bulb Finder is an award winning app that places an order for your light bulbs. http://ase.org/topics/lighting

2.      Energy Efficient Lighting for Commercial Markets - For more than 130 years, the world has relied on variations of incandescent and gas-discharge lamps to illuminate commercial buildings. With the rise of the general-illumination white LED lighting only a few years ago, the lighting industry is experiencing its first revolutionary change since the commercialization of the fluorescent lamp in the 1930s. As the semiconductor and software industries converge on the traditional lighting world, Pike Research expects that the lighting industry will see more change in the next five years than in the previous 50. By the end of our 10-year outlook, LED solid state lighting will not only capture over 50% of the global market, but the extraordinary lifetimes of these lamps will drive a steady decline in the commercial lamp market despite a steadily growing base of new buildings and access to electricity in emerging countries. This Pike Research report describes the key factors that are influencing the market for energy efficient lighting around the world. http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/energy-efficient-lighting-for-commercial-markets

3.      DOE Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium - The DOE Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium shares technical information and experiences related to LED street and area lighting demonstrations. The Consortium also serves as an objective resource for evaluating new products on the market intended for street and area lighting applications. Cities, power providers, and others who invest in street and area lighting are invited to join the Consortium and share their experiences. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/consortium.html

4.      Ceres, California, to Use CEC Loan to Purchase 2,200 Betaled Streetlights - The city council of Ceres, California, approved the use of a low interest loan from the California Energy Commission (CEC) for the purchase of LED streetlight fixtures earlier this week. The loan will allow the city of Ceres to convert all city-owned streetlights to LED streetlight fixtures, starting in January 2012.   Funds totaling $1.193 million will be used to purchase and install over two thousand LED streetlight fixtures manufactured by BetaLED, a division of Ruud Lighting/Cree of Sturtevant, Wisconsin. http://www.newstreetlights.com/index.htm

5.      Sacramento Parking Garage LED Installation - In the area of outdoor SSL deployments, the city of Sacramento, California has completed the installation of LED lighting in five of eight city-owned parking garages according to the Sacramento Press. The remaining three garages will be retrofitted by February. The total cost of the project is $1.3 million. But the city received utility incentives and federal and state grants to cover the cost of the SSL installation.

6.      Existing Home Sales Improved in October - According to data released Monday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), existing-home sales in October rose 1.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million.  Compared to a year ago, the current figure is up 13.5%. An ongoing positive trend is a steady decline in the number of homes on the market.  11/22 HCN

7.      Special Offers and Rebates from ENERGY STAR Partners - To encourage customers to buy energy efficient products, ENERGY STAR partners occasionally sponsor special offers, such as sales tax exemptions or credits, or rebates on qualified products. Partners also occasionally sponsor recycling incentives for the proper disposal of old products. The search is provided as a service to consumers to find such special offers or rebates where they exist, based on information that partners submit to ENERGY STAR. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=rebate.rebate_locator  

8.      Google Pulls the Plug on Its Green Energy Program - Google has decided to power down its 4-year-old REhttp://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/11/23/google-pulls-plug-its-rec-green-energy-program 

9. Shipments of LED Lamps and Luminaires to Exceed 500 Million Units in Asia Pacific by 2021 - While energy-efficient products are an expensive form of lighting for many customers in the Asia Pacific region, the higher costs are increasingly justified by the higher efficacy and performance compared to traditional lighting products. As a result, demand for LED products is growing among customers in developed countries such as Japan and Korea. Moreover, a number of regional and national government programs are in place to promote LED lighting, and these initiatives will serve as a key driver of the market in the coming decade. LED is now viewed as an affordable and efficient technology with long-term benefits. According to a new report from Pike Research, sales of LED lighting systems will increase rapidly over the next 10 years, accelerating sharply after 2015. Unit shipments, including lamps and luminaires, will rise from 66 million in 2011 to 542 million in 2021 – an increase of more than 700%. http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/energy-efficient-lighting-in-asia-pacific

10. Fuel Economy Leaders: 2012 Model Year - Rankings are based on combined city and highway fuel economy estimates (weighted by 55% city and 45% highway). http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/overall-high.htm