News Updates for the Week of October 28

1.      LED Lighting Creeps Toward Tipping Point - The overall project cost when LA changed out 140,000 street lights to LED was estimated at $57 million, which was paid for with a combination of power rebates, the Street Light Assessment Fund, and a $40 million loan that will be paid back over seven years with the savings generated by the end technology. Despite significant energy savings of this sort, LED lighting will only account for about 5 percent of all the technologies used in retrofit projects this year, estimates Navigant Research. By 2017, however, its share will probably hit 40 percent; it will pass the halfway mark by 2021. One big factor is lower LED pricing, which is helping compress the payback periods. 10/24 Forbes

2.      NEMA Publishes NEMA LSD 67-2013 Low Mercury Controllable Fluorescent Systems - NEMA LSD 67 discusses technical tradeoffs associated with reduced mercury dosing in fluorescent lighting systems and their environmental impacts. NEMA members are committed to providing fluorescent lighting systems that allow lamps to be controlled to save energy, while reducing the mercury content in the lamps to the extent that it is technically possible without sacrificing functionality. http://www.nema.org/Standards/Pages/Low-Mercury-Controllable-Fluorescent-Systems.aspx

3.      Philips CEO Says Company Is Winning Market Share With $5 LEDs  - Frans van Houten did not give a specific figure on the company's global market share. But the report showed LED lighting sales grew by 33 percent from a year ago in the three months through September. They accounted for 30 percent of the 2.08 billion euros ($2.85 billion) in lighting sales Philips had in the quarter. Van Houten said Philips is now offering consumer LEDs in the U.S. for $5 at Home Depot and in partnerships with several major utility companies. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/philips-winning-market-share-lighting-084115754.html

4.      DOE Publishes New Report on Color Stability of LED Lighting Products - The U.S. DOE has published a new report, Color Maintenance of LEDs in Laboratory and Field Applications. Although concern for parametric failure of LED lighting products has largely been focused on lumen maintenance, color shift is a cause of early failure for some products, especially in applications where visual appearance is critical. The report discusses field data from DOE's GATEWAY program showing that many LED lamps installed in museums have changed color beyond a reasonable tolerance well before their rated lifetimes were reached, and laboratory data from DOE's CALiPER program indicating that many early LED products shifted beyond acceptable tolerances in as short a span of time as a few thousand hours. The report is available: www.ssl.energy.gov/gatewaydemos_results.html

5.      NSF Announces SBIR/STTR Funding Opportunity - The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a funding opportunity for its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs that may be of interest to the solid-state lighting community. NSF SBIR and STTR programs provide non-dilutive seed money for startups and small businesses in almost any sector. Initial grants (Phase I) of the current funding opportunity provide $150,000 for six months. Awardees can compete for a Phase II grant, which provides $750,000 for two years. The current SBIR and STTR Phase I solicitations have deadlines of December 2 and December 4, respectively. For more information, visit www.nsf.gov/eng/iip/sbir

6.     RAB Lighting Earns IMARK Supplier of the Year Award - RAB Lighting, a manufacturer of LED lighting, was recently named 2013 IMARK Supplier of the Year.  This is the second consecutive year that RAB Lighting has been awarded this distinction by IMARK members.  The criteria used in the selection process includes annual sales growth and overall performance; marketing support for IMARK programs, new product promotions and communications activities; member training through IMARK University; and creative efforts to serve new members. www.imarkgroup.com

7.      Webinar: Pedestrian-Friendly Nighttime Lighting - On Tuesday, November 19, the U.S. DOE Solid-State Lighting Program will host a 90-minute live webinar entitled Pedestrian-Friendly Nighttime Lighting at 1:00 p.m. ET.  Presenter Naomi Miller of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will address color rendering (softness and warmth), safety (visibility and face recognition), and adaptation (sleeping, star-filled skies and other concerns). DOE SSL website

8.      LED Specifier Summit - Offers key education in LED lighting products and practices, geared toward architects, lighting designers, engineers, interior designers and other specifiers of LED lighting. All sessions are approved for AIA, IDCEC and GBCI continuing education and earn CEU credit. Register at: http://www.prereg.net/2013/ledss/.