News Updates for the Week of December 19

1.      Congress Overturns Incandescent Light Bulb Ban - Congressional negotiators struck a deal Thursday that overturns the new rules that were to have banned sales of traditional incandescent light bulbs beginning next year. That agreement is tucked inside the massive 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through the rest of this fiscal year, and which both houses of Congress will vote on Friday. Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill, which heads off a looming government shutdown. The spending bill doesn’t actually amend the 2007 law, but does prohibit the administration from spending any money to carry out the light bulb standards—which amounts to at least a temporary reprieve. This provision in the Omnibus bill is to prevent DOE from implementing the light bulb standards until September 30th. 12/16 The Washington Times

2.       Next Generation Luminaires Design Competition Deadline Extended to January 13 by Craig DiLouie - The deadline for “Intents to Submit” for the 2012 Next Generation Luminaires Indoor Design Competition has been extended. Written Intents to Submit are now due by January 13, 2012, and must be submitted online at www.ngldc.org 

   3.  More Than 3,900 Products Now Registered With Lighting Facts by Craig DiLouie - There are now more than 3,900 products registered with Lighting Facts, along with more than 300 manufacturers. The Lighting Facts label provides an at-a-glance view of an LED product’s basic performance attributes as measured according to the LM79 standard. http://www.lightnowblog.com/

 

4.      OLED Displays and Lighting Market to 2020 - GBI Research, a leading business intelligence provider, has released its latest research, "OLED Displays and Lighting Market to 2020 - Technological Innovations Lead to Cost Efficient Products and New Aesthetics." The report gives an in-depth analysis of the global Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) market for displays and lighting, covering four major regions - North America (USA and Canada), Europe, Asia-Pacific. The report covers market revenue forecasts for the OLED market (Displays and Lighting) from 2005-2020. It also provides market revenues breakdown for displays by application types; Cell Phones, Televisions, IT Monitors and Others and technology type; Passive Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (PMOLED) Displays and Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) Display. For OLED lighting segment, the report provides covers market revenue forecasts from 2010-2020. http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/c60711/oled_displays_and_lighting_market_to_2020_t

5.      IMS Reports Fastest Discounts on LED Lamps in China - The latest analysis of global retail prices for LED lamps and luminaires from IMS Research of Austin, TX, www.imsresearch.com has indicated that the most significant decline in LED lamp prices has occurred in China, with prices falling on average 62% (from $30 to $11) from September to November. IMS is tracking the sales of 420 LED lamps in 12 countries. Worldwide, it reported no 100W replacements on the market and only 32 lamps (7%) designed as 60W and 75W incandescent replacements. In South Korea, 26 of the 31 lamps tracked were mislabeled with regard to their wattage equivalency. In Japan, the average price of a 40W LED lamp is over $30. http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/12/13

6.      Will 2012 Be the End of the World for Renewable Energy? - As the year comes to a close so do two federal tax incentives the solar and wind energy industries have relied on to power their breakneck growth of recent years. Green energy executives and their respective trade groups warn that the expiration of the incentive tax credit–used primarily by solar–and the production tax credit for wind will cost tens of thousands of jobs and slow the nation’s transition to carbon-free power. At the 11th hour or later, Congress invariably extends the tax incentives once again. In the midst of a presidential election year with Republicans riding the bankruptcy of solar panel maker Solyndra to slam the Obama administration’s green energy policies, Congress may well let the tax breaks die. http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2011/12/13/will-2012-be-the-end-of-the-world-for-renewable-energy/

7.      LEDs to Help Decrease Market Size by Joe Salimando - Pike Research forecasts that LED share will reach 52% of the commercial lighting market by 2021. The cleantech market intelligence firm anticipates that LED lighting costs for various SSL products will be reduced by 80% to 90% in many cases during the next decade. Pike Research forecasts that the global market for commercial lighting will reach $42 billion in 2011 and see a peak of nearly $54 billion in 2012 before gradually declining to about $30 billion by 2021. The decline will be due to the extended lamp life of both fluorescents and LEDs as they become the primary lamp types, increasingly displacing demand for replacements for less efficient and shorter-lived incandescent lamps. This forecast is for a GLOBAL DEPRESSION in the Lighting industry—a 9-year drop of 44%. http://electricalcontractor.com

8.      Amerlux Launches Smart LED Platform - "We are proud to unveil a wireless network and multimedia platform that fully integrates performance-based lighting designed to yield significant energy savings, as well as enhance public safety, security and communications," said Amerlux chairman and founder Frank Diassi. The lighting elements of SmartSite are similar to other network-enabled luminaires. A city or utility can dim lights to save money and remotely monitor the operational status of lights to save on maintenance. The multimedia element presumably will help municipalities fund SSL street-light conversions. http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/12/12

9.      Washington’s Puget Sound Energy Offers Instant Rebates on LED Lamps - Puget Sound Energy has introduced an instant rebate that provides up to $10 off the purchase of LED lamps to residential customers. The rebates are good for the purchase of a variety of Energy-Star-qualified LED lamps. Depending on the bulb type, after-rebate price varies between $15 and $50. Customers can purchase the lamps at participating retailers including Costco, Lowe’s and The Home Depot. PSE is also hosting an online survey for bulb purchasers at http://www.PSE.com/LEDsurvey http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/12/11

10.  Ford Says It Will Break 100-Mpg Barrier - Ford Motor Co. said it would offer U.S. consumers in select markets a five-passenger vehicle rated at 100 miles per gallon in 2012. The 2012 Ford Focus Electric is one of a battery of fuel-thrifty cars in development at Ford.  Ford is planning to launch the Focus in California and the metropolitan New York areas in 2012 and then add 15 markets across the country before the end of the year, as long as supplies are available. 12/14 UPI

11.  California Releases Clean Car Plan: 1.4 Million by 2025 - CA released its plan for putting 1.4 million electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen-powered cars on its roads by 2025, that's one in seven cars.  New global warming standards for model years 2017-2025 would reduce vehicle emissions by about half of current levels and 34% below 2016 requirements. The standards are being coordinated with federal agencies to establish a single set of global warming pollution and fuel efficiency requirements for automakers. http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/23232

12.  India LED Lighting Market to Enjoy Rapid Growth - LED lighting is considered the key emerging lighting segment in the Indian market, driven by the move towards energy efficiency. Local issues include those of energy deficiency in remote rural regions and strong interest in energy sustainability. According to Frost & Sullivan Research, the LED lighting market in India was $73.3 million in 2010 and is forecast to grow at a CAGR 45.53% through 2014. The anticipated market growth will be mainly due to street lighting and railway lighting applications, which could account for over 60% of total demand next year.  http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/12/13

13.  CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood: Let There Be Light 12/18/11 - On the Sunday Morning Cover Story, Lee Cowan reports on the debate between the warm glow of the watt-sucking incandescent and the energy efficient LED. This segment features: Dr. David DiLaura; Ed Crawford; Daniel Blitzer; and Howard Brandston. Watch the video. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7392058n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

News Updates for the Week of February 28

1. Energy Efficient Light Bulbs Survive Congress - A new attack on the ban on incandescent light bulbs – the one that isn’t actually a ban – didn’t get very far. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), U.S. House Representative Todd Akin (R-Mo.) recently withdrew an amendment that would have denied funding for the DOE to carry out new energy efficiency standards for light bulbs set to begin going into effect in 2012. 2/21 Earth Techling

2. New Reports Chart Path to Zero-Net-Energy Commercial Buildings - Two new reports from the Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC) on achieving net-zero-energy use in commercial buildings say “high levels of energy efficiency are the first, largest and most important step on the way to net-zero.” There are many definitions of net-zero-energy buildings, but typically they are highly energy efficient buildings that use no more energy than they can produce on site on an annual basis. Free copies of the full reports can be downloaded at http://zeroenergycbc.org/

3. Existing-Home Sales Increase in January - Existing home sales estimates began 2011 on a positive note: up 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million. That's up from a downwardly revised 5.22 million in December. According to the estimate from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released Wednesday morning, existing home sales are 5.3% ahead of the 5.09 million in January 2010. 2/23 HCN

4. New Residential Sales in January 2011 - Sales of new single-family houses in January 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 284,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 12 6 12.6 percent (±11.2%) below the revised December rate of 325,000 and is 18.6 percent (±15.4%) below the January 2010 estimate of 349,000. http://www.census.gov/newhomesales

5. Rising Fuel Prices Could Cramp Economic Recovery - Consumers are already seeing the fallout from turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa every time they fill their gas tanks. It's what they don't see that's the bigger worry for the U.S. economy. From the farm to the factory, businesses are facing higher costs to grow the nation's food, ship goods and manufacture products at a time when they're already cautious about hiring new employees or placing big orders. The added burden of sustained fuel price increases could slow the nation's already sluggish economic growth, analysts said. By some estimates, every penny increase at the pump sucks $1.5 billion from household spending nationwide. Volatile fuel prices have some businesses looking to make permanent adjustments to their operations. 2/24 LA Times

6. National Lighting Product Information Program Releases New Report on Street Lighting Technologies - The National Lighting Product Information Program (NLPIP) released its latest Specifier Report, designed to provide objective performance information on existing street lighting technologies including LEDs, induction, and high pressure sodium (HPS) streetlights. This report comes at a critical time when many municipalities, some with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, are in the process of replacing HPS streetlights with LED and induction models. http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/nlpip/publicationDetails.asp?id=927&type=1

7. Amerlux Introduces 10-Year Warranty on LED Light Fixture Products - This warranty applies to the company's LED lighting fixtures beginning February 1, 2011 and demonstrates the company's confidence in its vast selection of these breakthrough products. "At Amerlux we have stood behind all of our product lines from the very beginning," noted Frank Diassi, Amerlux chairman and founder. "Our new 10-year warranty adds exciting new levels of value and assurance for our lighting customers in every category." Complete information is available at http://www.amerlux.com/

8. Economy's 4Q Growth Rate Lower Than First Thought -The economy grew more slowly at the end of last year than first thought as state and local governments cut spending more deeply and Americans spent a tad less briskly. The government says business activity increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the October-December quarter. That was down from the initial estimate of 3.2 percent. 2/25 Washington Post

9. Philips Lumileds Promises Freedom From Binning for White LEDs - Philips Lumileds has unveiled its Freedom From Binning program, which is intended to relieve concerns over white-light consistency and uniformity, and to simplify the design process for LED solutions. Lumileds intends to offer white Luxeon emitters for which there are no color bin selections, because the LEDs are sufficiently uniform and consistent. This also involves hot testing and binning at 85ºC. The program has been launched at Strategies in Light with 2700K and 3000K white LEDs. Lumileds plans to proliferate Freedom From Binning through new product introductions this year and into the future. http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/2/25

10. Cree LBR-30™ LED Lamp Sets New Industry Benchmark for Color Rendering - Cree, Inc. announces commercial availability of the LBR-30™ LED lamp, aimed at replacing energy-wasting incandescent lamps commonly used in tracks, commercial and residential recessed downlights. Powered by Cree TrueWhite® Technology, the lamp delivers warm-white light with unrivaled color accuracy and efficiency. Thanks to its high color rendering index (CRI) of 94, the LBR-30 lamp is optimized for applications where high color accuracy is essential, including restaurants, retail stores, groceries and museums. It delivers 600 lumens, equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent BR30, while using only 12 watts of input power. The lamp is designed to last 50,000 hours in open fixtures. 2/21 BUSINESS WIRE

11. Next Generation Luminaires™ Announces LED Design Competition Winners - Winners of the third annual Next Generation Luminaires™ awards were announced 2/23 at the Strategies in Light Conference in Santa Clara, California. Out of 138 entries from 61 companies, 33 were recognized this year as winners and another four were chosen as “best in class.”

• The Lighting Quotient Inc. for its Linear Concealed LED Luminaire cove lighting fixture

• Philips Color Kinetics for its eW Burst Powercore facade lighting fixture

• Koncept Technologies Inc. for its Equo LED Desk Lamp task lighting fixture

• USAI for its NanoLED recessed accent lighting fixture.

More information on all the winning entries is available at http://www.ngldc.org/

12. Bill Brown Sales Launches New Website - Bill Brown Sales (BBS), the leading component sales agency to lighting fixture OEMs, announces the launch of its new website at http://www.billbrownsales.com/ The user-friendly site offers a profile of each manufacturer that BBS represents, the latest product news, a calendar of upcoming trade shows, full contact details, resource information and much more.

13. California Senate Oks Renewable Energy Bill - The state Senate acted Thursday to require California utilities to boost their use of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources to a third of total supply by the year 2020. California law already requires utilities to get a fifth of their power from renewable energy. If this measure becomes law, utilities will be forced to lean even more heavily on green power. Supporters said the 33% target for renewables would put California ahead of the rest of the country in green-energy use. 2/24 LA Times

14. LCA TV Now Broadcasting on YouTube - Check out videos of new products, product demos and other interesting control-related videos at the Lighting Controls Association’s new YouTube channel Coming soon: At LIGHTFAIR, the Lighting Controls Association will be shooting and producing short videos demonstrating new products being introduced at the show, to be posted here and at LCA’s YouTube channel.