News Updates for the Week of February 18, 2013

1.     DOE Plans to Alter Lighting Facts Program - At the Strategies in Light conference, a US DOE said that later this year manufacturers can get Lighting Facts Label recognition for all members of a product family, while only fully testing one product in the family to the LM-79 standard. The manufacturer will then calculate or extrapolate performance figures for other products in the family for submission to the Lighting Facts program.  For now, only lighting manufacturers with at least a year of history in the program, ten or more products submitted previously, and a clean track record will be allowed to participate. Each manufacturer will define its own related products grouping and the method by which they will calculate results for the products that don’t go through testing. The Lighting Facts program will review and approve that work before manufacturers can get the Lighting Facts listing.  http://ledsmagazine.com/news/10/2/13

 

2.     Tax Break for Energy-Saving Improvements Is Back - The fiscal cliff legislation, which Congress passed on New Year’s Day, revived the tax credit for energy-efficiency improvements for both 2012 and 2013. If you made any eligible improvements in 2012 -- after the credit expired -- dig up the receipts before you file your taxes for the year because you may get a tax break after all. These new rules should also be kept in mind when planning home improvements for 2013. http://money.msn.com/tax-tips/post.aspx?post=8cd88651-dc7f-485d-b8cf-a071239aa8dd

3.     Sharp Announces 100W COB LED Delivering 14,000 Lm - Sharp is apparently adding a 100W chip-on-board (COB) LED to its Zenigata family. The GW7GAL50SGC LED will output 14,000 lm, and achieve efficacy of 143 lm/W while targeting solid-state lighting applications such as street lights and high-bay lighting. The 50W Mega Zenigata LEDs measure 20×24 mm. The new 100W device is 86.8 mm measured from one point of the hexagon to the opposite point, and 75 mm measured from flat side to flat side.  http://ledsmagazine.com/news/10/2/10

4.     Next Generation Luminaires Design Competition Announces 2012 Outdoor Winners - Winners in the Outdoor category of the fifth annual Next Generation Luminaires™ Solid-State Lighting Design Competition were announced at the Strategies in Light conference in Santa Clara, CA. They came from four different manufacturers and covered four different areas of outdoor lighting:

• The Lighting Quotient for its for its fraqtir™ Outdoor – Style S170 facade lighting fixture
• Relume Technologies, Inc. for its Oxford decorative acorn streetscape and walkway fixture
• GE Lighting for its Evolve™ LED Scalable Cobrahead roadway lighting fixture
• Edge Lighting for its TV and Dial LED decorative wall sconces

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

5.     2013 Lighting for Tomorrow Competition Launched - Lighting for Tomorrow launched its 11th consecutive annual competition at the Dallas Market, January 17-20, 2013. The competition is widening its scope in 2013 with the inclusion of OLED fixtures, and continuing with a broad range of residential LED products such as fixtures, retrofit kits, and replacement lamps. Entries in this competition will be judged on the basis of lighting performance, marketability, and energy efficiency. The first deadline for entries is April 5, 2013. Winners will be announced during an award ceremony at the ALA Conference, September 24, 2013 in Austin, TX. For complete guidelines and rules for the 2013 competition: http://www.lightingfortomorrow.com/

6.     NAED NATIONAL MEETING, May 4-7, 2013 | Boston Marriott Copley Place | Boston, MA -Early Bird Registration Deadline: March 27.  The National provides a venue for a vigorous exchange of ideas complete with networking, visionary keynotes, educational speakers and some of the industry's best distributors and suppliers. You'll find all the ideas, strategies and information you need to be successful in one place.  http://www.naed.org/national/#tabs-5

7.     Indoor Positioning Systems: We Know Where You Are - Studies have found that people spend 80-90% of their time   indoors. So it's no surprise that one of the most promising technologies for buildings is Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS). An IPS simply locates objects and people in a building and provides location dependent information. Such data could be used optimize the building operations, correlating the occupant data to building systems, energy consumption, space utilization,  and even using the data for renovations of existing buildings or design of new buildings. So we track and locate people and objects outdoors in real-time via GPS; IPS provides for similar tracking indoors. http://www.smart-buildings.com/uploads/1/1/4/3/11439474/2013febindoor.pdf

News Updates for the Week of August 13

1.      3M's New LED Light Bulb Designed to Burn for 25 Years - 3M Co. is coming out with what it says is a better LED light bulb -- and its first-ever consumer bulb -- at the end of August.  The high-tech bulb looks like a traditional incandescent but boasts a 25-year lifespan and a $25 price tag. The bulb is being manufactured at the 3M plant in New Ulm, MN, with materials sourced from around the globe. Toward the end of August, shoppers will find the bulb on shelves of select Walmart stores. http://www.twincities.com/ci_21223376/3ms-new-led-lightbulb-designed-burn-25-years

2.      LEED-Certified Building Stock Swells to Two Billion Square Feet Worldwide - The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that the total footprint of commercial projects certified under its LEED green building program surpassed two billion square feet. An additional seven billion square feet is currently in the pipeline across the globe as registered projects. As the most widely recognized and used green building program, LEED is certifying two million square feet of commercial building space each day in more than 130 countries. Today, nearly 50,000 commercial projects are currently participating in LEED, comprising nine billion square feet of construction space. Additionally, nearly 23,000 homes across the U.S. have earned certification through the LEED for Homes program, with nearly 86,000 additional units in the pipeline. That's more than 159,000 registered and certified projects in LEED. http://www.tedmag.com

 

3.      Lighting Facts Institutes QA Testing, Requires Annual Product Updates - Beginning October 1, the LED Lighting Facts program will begin charging a fee for annual product listings. It has already begun quality assurance testing, which results in a green double-check mark on the label upon verification. The biggest change is that Lighting Facts will now require that manufacturers update the status of their listed products annually. Any product that has been on the list for more than one year will have to be updated to assure whether it is available on the market and to give the opportunity to update performance changes that have taken place since the listing.  In the coming weeks, Lighting Facts will hold a number of webinars to educate LED lighting manufacturers and users regarding the changes. http://ledsmagazine.com/news/9/8/2

 

4.      National Grid Small Business Incentive Program - National Grid offers incentives for up to 70% of the cost of the installation of qualified energy efficient equipment and can finance your share of the cost.  Some of the cost-cutting, energy efficient equipment available through this program includes:

·         Lighting upgrades (Now includes LED lights)

·         Lighting occupancy sensors

·         Walk-in cooler efficiency measures

·         Site-specific custom projects

https://www1.nationalgridus.com/SmallBusiness

 

5.      Boulder County's New Energy-Efficiency Loan Program - The EnergySmart loan program, which is being administered by Elevations Credit Union, officially kicks off Wednesday.  Elevations business energy loans offer financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades for businesses in Boulder County and the City/County of Denver. Loan details:

·         Fixed rates starting as low as 2.75% APR

·         36, 60, 84 or 120 month terms

·         Businesses can apply for a loan between $1,000 and $150,000

·         Property must be located in Boulder County or Denver County, Colorado

·         Before loan can be issued, an Energy Advisory will work with you to ensure your project meets loan eligibility criteria and any available rates. https://elevationscu.com/business-loans

6.      Hundreds of Dearborn Streetlights to be Replaced with LED Fixtures -Dearborn City Council on Monday approved $158,079.40 in funding for the energy efficiency project.  The project is funded through the U.S. Department of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program, and joins a previous city appropriation for $242,223.78 to be used to replace 318 streetlights.  Since the approval of the original project with DTE Energy in April, the pricing per light fixture was reduced from $761 to $529.31. Therefore, the entire order–which will replace 778 fixtures total will cost a total of $400,303.18. http://dearborn.patch.com/articles/hundreds-of-dearborn-streetlights-to-be-replaced-with-led-fixtures

7.      Wide Differences Found in NYC Buildings’ Power Use - NYC Mayor Bloomberg may target inefficient buildings next.  The first comprehensive study of energy use by New York City’s largest buildings shows some to be power hogs, using up to five times as much electricity, natural gas, heating oil and steam as others of comparable size or purpose. And there is ample room for improvement. The report http://www.nyc.gov/html/gbee/html/plan/ll84_scores.shtml to be released on Friday by the city’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, estimates that if poor-performing buildings in the city improved their efficiency and reached just the median level of energy use in their categories, the city’s energy consumption would decline by at least 18 percent and greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 24 percent. 8/2 NY Times

 

8.      DOE Releases L Prize Lumen Maintenance Report  - The U.S. DOE has published a report, Lumen Maintenance Testing of the Philips 60-Watt Replacement Lamp L Prize Entry, after completing 18,000 hours of lumen maintenance testing. Using the latest data, key findings include: http://www.lightingprize.org/pdfs/lprize_60w-lumen-maint-testing.pdf

·         Very little change in light output

·         Chromaticity remains well within the L Prize requirements

·         Most recent data projects lumen maintenance will be 97.8% at 25,000 hours

http://www.lightingprize.org/60watttest.stm   

9.      Mississippi Universities to Cut Energy Costs - Eight public Mississippi universities will be cutting energy costs with a $725,000 grant from the Department of Energy. The Tennessee Valley Authority, an electric company that services 36 counties in Mississippi, is adding $150,000 to the grant over a three-year period.  Mississippi is not the only state that will receive money from the Department of Energy. The department is spending $7.9 million across 13 states to help cut energy costs. Mississippi, however, received the most money from the grant. http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2012/aug/08/universities-cut-energy-costs/

10.  Osram Develops LED Module for Historic Street Luminaires - Osram has developed an LED module to enable rapid upgrading of historic street luminaires. The decorative street lighting (DSL) module can be used for a wide variety of luminaires, independent of the original manufacturer. The module is prepared upon request so that fitting is as simple as replacing lamps or sockets. Osram also notes that the integration of modern control units with intelligent light management can ensure further energy savings. http://ledsmagazine.com/news/9/8/3

 

11.  Enterprise LED Lighting 2012 Research Report - Groom Energy and Greentech Media announced the release of a new commercial and industrial LED lighting research report, "Enterprise LED Lighting 2012: Commercial and Industrial Market Trends, Opportunities and Leading Companies." An update to their previously published 2010 report, the study revises earlier forecasts upward, now sizing the 2012 North American market at $630 million, growing at 40 percent per year and expected to surpass $2 billion in annual revenue by 2016. The report also introduces its Enterprise LED Lamp and Fixture Price Index, which aggregates latest pricing for a broad range of LED lamps and fixtures. The index shows that prices for enterprise class LED light fixtures have declined by 24 percent in the two years since the first publication of the report. To review an abstract or to purchase online, visit www.groomenergy.com or http://www.greentechmedia.com

12.  LED Vs. Everything Else: Interior & Exterior Instructed By Stan Walerczyk, L.C., C.L.E.P. -

An 8-Hour Distance Learning Seminar; Earns 0.8 CEU / 8 PDH; New Program Starts October 1

Presented online in a series of four live two-hour time modules, this seminar is designed to educate you about both the best types of applications for utilizing current LED lighting technologies, as well as how these technologies compare to other options available for the same lighting scenarios.

You can participate in the seminar from your office, home, or anywhere you have access to the internet and a phone. You'll have opportunities to interact with your instructor and colleagues in real time during the four live teleconferencing sessions, as well as in the time between sessions. AEE Seminars registrar@aeecenter.org

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