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 April 11

1. Earth Day is April 22, 2011 - http://www.earthday.org/

2. From Howard Wiig, Institutional Energy Analyst, Dept. of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, State of Hawaii - The mercury from CFL's escaping into the atmosphere is not accurate. Mercury is dangerous when we (ot other species) inhale it in its gaseous state. The vast majority of CFL's are put into the garbage, where they are picked up and deposited into a garbage truck, where they break. There are (hopefully) no people in the garbage area to inhale the mercury gas. From the truck it generally goes to a landfill where it is covered over each day. Hence very little of the mercury escapes into the atmosphere, and when it does, it's not in proximity to humans. Finally, the amount of mercury in a CFL is equivalent to the amount of ink on a page when a ball-point pen's tip is pressed upon the page. The 75% energy savings achieved by CFL's is far more important than the minuscule amount of mercury from CFL's affecting humans. HWiig@dbedt.hawaii.gov

2. CORRECTION: GE Tours: Electric Vehicle Charging, Lighting Revolution - General Electric recently unveiled plans for two national tours: 3/15 TED

1) Seven-city EV Experience Tour: From the release: Each day-long stop in cities along the tour will include presentations by GE and community leaders, workshops to help stakeholders with EV planning, deployment, and integration strategies, and test drives. AND: GM, Ford, Toyota, Navistar, Smith Electric Vehicles, Mitsubishi, Coda, Smart, THINK and other organizations are working with GE on this. Stops:

• San Francisco (May 19) and Seattle (June 6)

• Los Angeles (March 17) and San Diego (March 22)

• Austin, Texas; New York City; and Washington, D.C. (to be scheduled)

2) 47-city GE Lighting Revolution Tour—first stop happened March 2 in Orlando, Fla.; there are 46 more to happen before November ends. What’s it about: LEDs, fluorescent, halogen and ceramic-metal halide lighting systems, GE said. Distributors, contractors, and others are invited; find out if the tour stops near you, and register, here. Upcoming stops:

• Houston—March 21

• Austin, Texas—March 28

• Dallas—April 4

3. GE to Build Largest US Solar Power Plant - GE is taking aim at the world's biggest solar company in a bid to expand into a fast-growing renewable energy market. General Electric Co. announced Thursday that it would spend $600 million to build the nation's biggest solar panel factory. It would build the same type of so-called thin film solar panels manufactured by First Solar Inc., the biggest producer of solar panels in the world. 4/7 AP

4. New NanoMarkets Report Predicts Asian OLED Lighting Market to Reach $2.1 Billion by 2016 - Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets has released its latest report titled, “OLED Lighting Markets Asia-2011,” that says the market opportunities in Asia for OLED lighting will generate $2.1 billion by 2016. The report is the latest in NanoMarkets’ continuing coverage of the global OLED lighting marketplace. Additional details: http://nanomarkets.net/market_reports/report/oled_lighting_in_asia_-_2011/

5. New York City’s Electricity Prices May Double by 2014 - The price of electric power in New York City could double over the next three years as the result of a recent ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Power prices in New York City are already nearly two-thirds higher than the average price paid by consumers in other U.S. cities during any given month of the year. The gravamen of the dispute stems from federal “reliability standards” stipulating that New York City must be able to provide at least 80% of the electricity it uses during hours of peak demand from local power plants. In January, FERC issued a ruling that would substantially increase the price companies selling power in New York City pay for “capacity.” These companies pass the cost of buying this capacity on to consumers in the form of higher electricity bills. 4/4 Forbes

6. Microsoft, Toyota Partner on Energy Efficiency System - Microsoft and Toyota are forming a partnership to develop an in-car electronics system to allow Toyota's battery-powered vehicles to run more efficiently. They'll jointly invest $11.7 million in a Toyota subsidiary that provides data services to drivers. Along with plans for telematics services including data, navigation, in-car entertainment and multimedia, the system may manage energy use in vehicles. Toyota is looking to deploy the new system, powered by Microsoft's Azure platform, in its 2012 fleet of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and expand it to all models by 2015. General Motors and Ford also offer products developed with Microsoft. Ford previously tapped Microsoft to power its Sync system. 4/7 Detroit Free Press

7. Emergency Lighting: Automatic Load Control Relay Requirements in 2011 NEC - NFPA 101, the Life Safety Code, and the International Building Code (IBC) require emergency lighting in all commercial and industrial buildings to facilitate emergency egress of people from the building and to reduce the possibility of panic in buildings during the exiting of large numbers of people during an emergency. Emergency lighting loads must be automatically energized or re-energized within 10 seconds of the electrical power outage, based on 700.12 of the NEC, and must stay energized for at least 90 minutes or for the anticipated time of the building evacuation. 3/’11 Electrical Contractor

8. A Systems Approach to Solid State Lighting by TE Connectivity - The transition from incandescent or fluorescent lighting fixtures to solid state lighting (SSL) presents lighting manufacturers with both a significant opportunity for growth and a daunting array of new engineering and design issues. The emergence of high-brightness (HB) LEDs has accelerated the conversion to SSL fixtures and will eventually overtake the use of CFLs as the preferred energy-efficient light source. This white paper provides lighting manufacturers with an overview of the elements involved in the design of SSL fixtures and describes the innovations of the TE Connectivity NEVALO system. http://www.ledjournal.com/images/White_Papers/NEVALO_WP_03%2016%2011.pdf

9. 2010 LED Resource Guide - This special issue features a comprehensive buyers guide of companies that manufacture LEDs, modules and arrays; providers of products, materials, components and services related to LED products and systems; LED technology developers and providers; and vendors of equipment, supplies and services for the manufacture of LED products and systems. http://www.ledjournal.com/images/PDFs/Online20Issues/2010/LEDRG2010.pdf

10. NEMA Guidelines on the Application of Dimming to High-Intensity Discharge Lamps -This document provides general information and considerations involved in the design and application of dimming circuitry employed with specific ballasts and lamps in the HID family. Download it free from the NEMA website. http://www.nema.org/stds/lsd14.cfm

11. LED Roadway Lighting Ltd. Technology to Shine in Australian Market - LED Roadway Lighting Ltd. (LRL) fixtures will soon be lighting up streets and roadways across Australia, thanks to a new partnership between LRL and PECAN Lighting Ltd. (PECAN), an Australian based street lighting company specializing in solar applications. Together, LRL and PECAN will bring energy efficient and environmentally friendly lighting solutions to the streets of Australia. 4/4 EC&M