News Updates for the Week of November 19

1.      Osram Sylvania Wins Race to Offer 100W-Equivalent LED A-Lamp - Just a few weeks back, Philips Lighting announced that it was readying to ship its 100W-equivalent and that the lamps would be in Home Depot by December 1. So the race is mainly for bragging rights, but the availability of 100W-equivalent LED lamps is a positive move for the industry.  The Osram lamp is selling for $50 at Lowe's now. Philips has said that Home Depot will price its product at $55.  The Sylvania product outputs 1600 lm with efficacy of 80 lm/W. It has a CRI of 80 color temperature of 2700K, 25,000-hr rated life, and is dimmable to 10%.  Philips says its lamp will deliver 1780 lm and is a 22W lamp. Both are A-21. Back at LFI, GE Lighting said its lamp would deliver 1600 lm and consume 27W and will be A-19. http://ledsmagazine.com/news/9/11/6

2.      LIGHTFAIR to Move to San Diego in 2016 - The 2016 staging at the San Diego Convention Center marks the San Diego premiere for LFI, which is produced alternately annually in large east- and west-coast venues. The San Diego location follows LFI’s long-running staging in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center, its west-coast venue beginning in 1998, continuing in 2001 and then recurring in even years 2004-2012. LIGHTFAIR^® International 2013 is set to produce the single-largest trade show and conference in its 24-year history April 21-25 in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Convention Center, which will house important new category additions accommodated by expansion to an additional exhibit hall. www.lightfair.com

3.      World LED Lighting Markets (2012 Update) - The LED lighting market is growing, driven predominantly by supportive legislation phasing out inefficient lighting technologies. Frost & Sullivan research service examines the global LED lighting market, providing specific breakdowns for North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World. Decreasing prices, improving quality, and increasing technical advantages are significant influences on the market’s anticipated growth trajectory. The study period is 2008-2018, with a base year of 2011 and a seven-year forecast period of 2012-2018. Key market drivers and restraints, market engineering measurements, and forecasts and trends for the total market, are analyzed. http://www.frost.com

4.      Google Investing in Green Energy in Greene County, Iowa - Google invested $75 million in a 50 MW wind farm in Rippey, a small town in Greene County, Iowa, bringing the company just short of $1 billion in investments in green energy projects. The wind farm, developed by RPM Access, is expected to produce enough energy to power over 15,000 Iowa homes. It uses turbines produced by Nordex USA at their Jonesboro, Arkansas facility. The energy produced by the wind farm has been contracted to the Central Iowa Power Cooperative, an Iowa-based utility that will deliver the energy to local consumers. http://www.google.com/green/energy/investments/

5.      LEDucation Expands Expo Floor for 7th Annual Educational Event/Expo on MARCH 20, 2013 in NYC - The new larger expo space at the Penn Plaza Pavilion allows for additional exhibitors to join the long list of veteran exhibitors from previous years. Exhibit hours for 2013 will begin with expo doors opening at 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. LED presentations will begin at 11:00 a.m. thru 7:00 p.m. Visit theLEDucation website (leducation.org) for details on attending, exhibiting, and educational sessions or visit the host website at (www.dlfny.com).

6.      Lighting for Aging Vision & Health - Robert Dupuy, IALD, LC & Eunice Noell-Waggoner, LC provide an in depth perspective on the subject of lighting for aging vision & health for the November session of the Human Centric Lighting Committee. http://humancentriclighting.com/?p=738

7.      White Paper: Choosing the Right LED Product for Industrial Applications - If you’re using HID or HPS fixtures, your lighting energy costs are probably in the range of $1 per square foot per year--meaning that your 200,000 square foot facility likely costs $200,000 annually. The way to reduce that massive energy expense is to upgrade to industrial LED lighting, which can reduce lighting energy use up to 90%. This white paper by Digital Lumens provides a comprehensive overview of the industrial LED alternatives—from plain LED fixtures to Intelligent LED Lighting Systems. http://ecmweb.com/whitepapers/white-paper-choosing-right-led-product-industrial-applications

8.      PECO Develops Additional Programs to Help Customers Save Energy and Money - On November 1 PECO filed a plan with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission for enhanced PECO Smart Ideas energy efficiency programs for residential and business customers. Following PUC review and approval the new programs would be available beginning in June, 2013. Included in PECO's filing are seven new programs for residential and business customers as well as the continuation of six existing programs. The programs are part of the company's ongoing support of Pennsylvania Act 129 and specifically the second phase of Act 129 energy efficiency and conservation targets. To view PECO's filing visit www.peco.com. To learn more visit www.peco.com/SmartIdeas.

9.      Maine Ripe for Energy-Efficiency Savings - Maine homes and businesses could trim their overall electricity consumption by 16 percent over the next decade by installing more-efficient lights, equipment and appliances, a new study for Efficiency Maine Trust has concluded. Efficiency Maine, an independent agency, was set up three years ago as a trust to guide and administer energy-efficiency and alternative energy programs in Maine. It spent $45 million in its first two years, with the money coming from a small surcharge on electricity bills. That spending leveraged as much as $50 million in private participation.  http://www.efficiencymaine.com/about

10.   An Afterlife for the Electric Car - Advocates of electric cars and renewable energy have talked for years about repackaging the battery packs built for cars as home energy storage devices once they can no longer hold enough charge to run a vehicle. The idea behind the prototype is two-fold: to provide a market for past-their-prime batteries, giving them a resale value that will lower their cost of ownership, and providing distributed storage that could be used to shore up weak spots on the grid or to absorb energy from intermittent sources like solar panels and wind machines and deliver it in a steady stream suitable for the power grid. A battery pack from a Chevy Volt. A new prototype lashes five of them together in an array that is supposed to provide two hours of electricity for three to five average houses. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/

11.  Ford, Toyota Will Lead Plug-in Electric Vehicle Sales in the U.S. Through 2020 - Assembly lines in Japan and the United States produced more than 20,000 plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in 2011, an all-time record for such vehicles.  But optimism about the market for PEVs has gradually been replaced with a better understanding of the practical challenges of launching new models and expanding PEV sales to mainstream consumers unfamiliar with the technology.  Nevertheless, according to a recent report from Pike Research, sales of PEVs in the United States will climb steadily over the remainder of this decade with Ford and Toyota leading the way in the U.S. from 2012 to 2020. http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/plug-in-electric-vehicles

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