News Updates for the Week of June 3

1.     T5 And T8 Linear Fluorescent Lamp Shipments Surge During First Quarter - NEMA’s T5 and T8 linear fluorescent lamp indexes surged upward 6.3 and 15.7 percent on a year-over-year basis (y/y), respectively, during 2013Q1. Moreover, the T8 index value of 120.2 was the second highest in the history of the series. Meanwhile, the index reading of 173.9 for T5 lamps was the highest since 2011. Not surprisingly, the index for T12 lamp shipments continued to diminish, posting a decrease of 38.9 percent (y/y), settling at a value of 36.5 for the quarter.  T8 lamps increased in market share by 2.2 percentage points reaching 75 percent; T5 lamps garnered a share of 10.1 percent; T12 lamps dipping to a share of 14.9 percent. http://www.nema.org/News/Pages/T5-and-T8-Linear-Fluorescent-Lamp-Shipments-Surge-During-First-Quarter.aspx

2.     HID Lamp Shipment Indexes Remain Dim - NEMA’s shipment indexes for high intensity discharge (HID) lamps declined on a year-over-year basis (y/y) for the fourth consecutive quarter in 2013Q1. Shipments of sodium vapor lamps decreased 14.1 percent (y/y) to an index reading of 71.2 during the quarter. Mercury vapor lamp shipments were down a similar magnitude at 13 percent (y/y) to 44.2, the third lowest level in the index series. Metal halide lamp shipments fell too, posting an index value of 77.5, a decrease of 9.5 percent (y/y).  www.nema.org

3.     Global LED Light Bulb Shipments to Reach 842 Million Units in 2013 - The global market is expected to grow and Digitimes Research forecasts 2013 global LED light bulb shipments to reach 842 million units, representing a sequential increase of 151%, accounting for 52.3% of products.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130529PD206.html

4.     United States Smart Infrastructure: LED and Smart Street Lighting - LED streetlights are quickly transforming the landscape of cities and municipalities across the United States, but still only make up about 1% of the country's more than 50 million streetlights. The next step of advanced smart lighting systems will improve upon the existing benefits of LED streetlights and contribute to cities' growing "smart infrastructure." This study identified nearly 400 US cities and towns that range from those having considered LED streetlights to those having completed changeovers and experimented with advanced smart lighting systems. For more information click on: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/publication/uemyga/united_states_smart_infrastructure_led_and_s

5.     DOE Webcast on LED Troffers, Retrofit Kits, and Replacement Tubes - On Thursday, June 20, DOE will host a 60-minute live webcast on its recently completed CALiPER Exploratory Study, Recessed Troffer Lighting, in which a group of lighting designers, engineers, and facility managers compared the performance of conventional fluorescent troffers with T8 LED tube retrofits, LED retrofit kits, and dedicated LED troffers. Troffers (1'×4', 2'×2', and 2'×4') comprise more than half of all luminaires installed in commercial applications, so switching to LED technology has the potential to yield significant energy and environmental benefits. The webcast will begin at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and will include a 40-minute presentation, followed by a 20-minute Q&A. To register, visit the DOE SSL website. The CALiPER study is available online at www.ssl.energy.gov/exploratory.html

6.     LEUKOS Volume 9 Print Compilation – IES members are entitled to free online access to LEUKOS, the Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. If you prefer to read LEUKOS in print, you can purchase a year-end print compilation for only $25. Volume 9, Numbers 1 - 4 will be available in June.
http://www.ies.org/leukos/introduction.cfm

7.     U.S. Energy Secretary Moniz to Keynote the 2013 U.S. Energy Information Administration EIA Energy Conference June 17 and 18 at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC - The EIA Energy Conference has become a premier forum for addressing energy issues in the United States and around the world. This event will bring together thought leaders from industry, government, and academia to discuss current and future challenges facing domestic and international energy markets and policymakers. http://www.fbcinc.com/e/EIA/

8.     Cheap Leases Offered to Spur Electric Car Sales - Honda announced Thursday that it's slashing the monthly lease cost of its tiny Fit EV by one third, following similar moves by other automakers. Honda also is throwing in other goodies, such as a free home charging station and unlimited mileage. With the Fit EV, Honda is offering a $259 per month lease, down $130 from the initial $389 per month offer when the car went on sale in July of last year. The reduced lease price starts June 1. The three-year lease requires no money down and comes with unlimited mileage, free routine maintenance, collision insurance coverage and a free 240-volt home charging station,  Earlier this month, General Motors Co. said that it would lease the subcompact Spark EV for $199 per month with $999 due at signing as it goes on sale in California and Oregon. Nissan is offering a $199-per-month lease on its Leaf electric car with $1,999 down. 5/30 AP

9.     Big Data and Microseismic Imaging Will Accelerate the Smart Drilling Oil and Gas Revolution -Over the past five years, technology has improved the productivity of the typical oil or gas rig on America’s shale fields between 200 and 300 percent.  Globally, the average cost to find and yield a new barrel has increased from $6 in 1998 to $27 a barrel today.  But in America’s oil shale fields it’s now dropped to the $7 to $15 range.  American oil production will soon surpass Saudi Arabia's output, according to the International Energy Agency. The end result: U.S. drilling success rates have risen from an average of barely 50 percent in 1972 to over 85 percent today.  5/08 Forbes

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