News Updates for the Week of November 26

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1.      Philips Lighting’s CEO Bruno Biasiotta Announces Reorganization - With greater attention to the customer experience, Philips Lighting is creating a one lighting go to market organization focused around geographies and differentiated by channel.

• They will begin to move towards a single Professional sales team by providing access to the entire Philips portfolio, also maintaining partnerships with independent agents. Leading this division is Ed Crawford. 
• The Consumer sales team, led by Kerry Vachon, will represent the full portfolio for the Consumer channel.
• The OEM sales team will report into the Lighting NA market organization. 
• The National Accounts and Services group will expand its activities and establish and invest in Turnkey Projects & Solutions (TP&S) to build solutions selling capability as a growth platform. Bill Schoettler is in charge here.  
• Danny Garst will head up a centrally led Customer Fulfillment and Sales Support Centers. Customer Fulfillment to offer a one Philips point of contact, while continuing to focus on forecast accuracy and on time order delivery. Sales support to focus on functional excellence and capabilities.  

2.      FMI Releases 2013 Construction Outlook - FMI, the Raleigh, N.C.-based provider of management consulting and investment banking to the engineering and construction industry, has forecast an 8% increase in construction activity for 2013. Robust growth in residential construction, as well as a few strong markets in nonresidential and non-building construction, will contribute to the expansion, the report said. http://www.fminet.com/resources

3.      City Announces $10 Million Available for Energy Efficiency Loans - A new public-private initiative is offering Knoxville businesses a funding source to help finance energy efficiency improvements such as heating system upgrades and building retrofits. Through the city's partnership with Pathway Lending, a total of $10 million in loans will be available for businesses in Knoxville and Knox County.  Low-interest loans from $25,000 to $2.5 million are available through a the "Mayor's Energy Efficiency Challenge." Details are available at www.pathwaylending.org

4.      Incandescent Lamp Shipments Index Remains Resilient Through Third Quarter - NEMA’s index for traditional A-line incandescent lamps increased 20.2 percent during Q3 2012 rebounding from a slide of 18.2 percent in Q2 2012. Meanwhile, the CFL index registered a decline of 3.3 percent compared to the previous quarter. Halogen A-line lamp shipments gained momentum, increasing by 83.3 percent on a quarterly basis. The index for halogen A-line lamps has increased in 7 out of the last 8 quarters. http://www.nema.org

 

5.      Nexxus Lighting Changes Name to Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc. - Nexxus Lighting, Inc. (NEXS) announced that the company has changed its name to Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc. (RVLT), effective November 15, 2012. www.rvlti.com

6.      DOE Updates the Latest L Prize Lamp Test Results, Rebate Offers - The US DOE continues to test the Philips Lighting LED 60W-equivalent retrofit lamp that won the L Prize with no failures reported over more than 20,000 hours of operation. The full lot of 200 sample lamps are all still operating. The tests have reached what the agency considers the equivalent of 18 years of household use with no failures. Moreover, the average lumen maintenance remains above 100% of their initial output. The DOE also released a summary of rebates available for the solid-state lighting (SSL) product that range as high as $20 per lamp. http://ledsmagazine.com/news/9/11/13

7.      Existing Home Sales Rise in October - According to a report from the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales in the U.S. rose 2.1% in October.  Existing home sales grew to seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million units, according to a report issued Monday morning. The figure is up 2.1% from September’s rate, and up 10.9% from the 4.32 million level in October 2011. 11/19 HCN

8.      Housing Starts Rise Again - The residential construction surge from September stayed the course in October, as the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts increased to 894,000. The figure is up 3.6% from a downwardly revised September estimate of 863,000. More impressive, it is up 41.9% from the October 2011 rate of 630,000. Like the September figure, the October figure is the highest since July 2008. 11/20 HCN

9.      Daimler to Introduce Luxury Car Lit Entirely with LEDs - The new Mercedes-Benz S-Class will be the first car to be fitted completely with LEDs as standard, while optional extras will include adaptive LED headlamps that adjust according to other road users. The car will use over 190 LEDs that will illuminate the road ahead, as well as the vehicle’s exterior, interior and luggage compartment. Of course, Daimler’s rivals have also been hard at work introducing LED lighting into their vehicles. http://ledsmagazine.com/news/9/11/15

News Updates for the Week of September 24

1.      Number of LED Rebates Increases by 51% - Over the past year, rebate and incentive programs have caught up to the growing number of LED lighting solutions being used in the market today. Today, thousands of programs are available for LED solutions. An interesting trend is that while the number of rebates has steadily grown over the past year, the average rebate amount has actually gone down. For LED replacement lamps, the average rebate has decreased by 4% since January 2012. Incentives for LED recessed down lights have also decreased by 29% during the same time period. These reductions are mostly due to the cost of LEDs coming down over the last year, which means less incentive money is needed to make these solutions financially attractive. http://www.briteswitch.com/newsletter/Sept12-1.html

2.      The Current US Lighting Rebate Climate - As we enter the final stretch of the calendar year, an increasing number of rebate and incentive programs are exhausting their funds. According to our North American Rebate and Incentive Database, 9% of all US commercial lighting rebate and incentive programs are currently out of funding. This situation is mainly due to increased participation in the programs. Locations that would have previously qualified for rebates may no longer be eligible because the rebate organization has no money left.

http://www.briteswitch.com/newsletter/Sept12-2.html

3.      Forces of Change by Mark Lien - A recent DOE study projects that the LED market share will total just 9.5% by 2015 and 35.8 % in 2020. Innovation is often stifled because the concept is embraced but new ideas are not. Lighting products and applications will not be the same in 10 years. New industry leadersd will emerge with their success being in large part by how they define LED innovation. 8/’12 LD&A 

4.      Builder Confidence Continues to Rise - Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose for a fifth consecutive month in September to a level of 40 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today. The three-point rise brought the index to its highest point since June 2006. Any number higher than 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. 9/18 HCN

5.      Housing Starts Improve in August - Government data released Wednesday morning show residential construction climbing slowly out of an historically deep hole. Housing starts increased in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 750,000--that’s up 2.3% from the July rate and up 29.1% from the August 2011 rate. To put the numbers in an historical context, a full year with 750,000 starts would be the fourth lowest year since the government began keeping track of the statistic in 1959. However, an end-of-year figure of 750,000 would be an increase of 39%, 28% and 23% when compared with the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. 9/19 HCN

6.      Existing-Home Sales Rise 7.8% - Existing-home sales continued to improve in August, according to the National Association of Realtors. The NAR’s tally shows existing-home sales in August increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.82 million, up 7.8% from 4.47 million in July. Compared with a year ago, the rate of sales is up 9.3%.  9/20 HCN

7.      Half Of Chinese LED Chip Makers Predicted to Go Bust - Half of all LED chip making companies in China will go bankrupt owing to a slump in global demand and cuts in subsidies to certain manufacturers, according to a piece of research by Reuters. Analysts say oversupply and the economic downturn has depressed prices to below production levels, meaning large numbers of small companies have already closed their businesses. Under a new government resolution to reduce subsidies, these businesses may be left with no choice but to integrate or declare bankruptcy. Due to government support, global share of the market for packaged LED components rose from 2 per cent in 2010 to 6 per cent in 2011. But the boom years are coming to an end, with many of China’s LED chipmakers operating their factories at 50 per cent capacity. Around half of the 700 or so factories that received government help have been left idle. http://www.lighting.co.uk

8.      Energy Efficiency Initiative Putting NY on the MAP - The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has launched a $30 million initiative to accelerate the market utilization of emerging, cutting-edge energy-efficiency technologies. The Energy Efficiency Market Acceleration Program (EE-MAP) will fund research and development activities and demonstration projects to help leverage investments and promote business development opportunities for emerging energy efficiency technologies. This will be done in coordination with state agencies, authorities and electric utilities to improve industry access to investments made at public facilities. http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/energy-efficiency-initiative-putting-ny-map/2012-09-18

9.      NYSERDA Announces $1.1 Million Equipment Rebate Program to Help Small Municipal Governments Reduce Energy Use - The “Buy Green, Save Green Rebates for New York State Local Governments” program is available to encourage small municipal governments to replace inefficient appliances and equipment with energy-efficient models. The program begins Sept. 25, 2012. The rebates will pay 75 percent of the purchase price of eligible products, which include ENERGY STAR® refrigerators, dehumidifiers, commercial dishwashers, room air conditioners, imaging equipment (including copiers and fax machines; digital duplicators; printers, scanners and all-in-one devices; and mailing machines), as well as CFLs and LEDs in quantities of 10 or more.  www.nysappliancerebates.com 

10.  Newly Remodeled New Jersey Energy Data Center Website - The NJEDC is funded by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and is a data collection and processing tool for New Jersey policy makers, businesses, educators, and citizens. The website includes links to electricity, natural gas, petroleum, energy efficiency and renewable energy data for the State, as well as many other energy-related links. The purpose of the site is to help promote public understanding regarding energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. http://www.njenergydatacenter.org/

11.  Five Connecticut Colleges Sharing $1M Loan to Boost Energy Efficiency - Connecticut's Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority is making a $1 million loan to help a group of Connecticut colleges become more energy efficient. The money will be used to launch "Campus Efficiency Now," a program that will allow participating schools that are members of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges to implement energy-saving measures with no upfront costs. The money will be repaid by the five schools participating in the program--the University of Hartford, Mitchell College, Connecticut College, University of Saint Joseph and the University of New Haven--using the energy savings yielded over five years. 9/19 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional

12.  Oregon Becomes Energy Special Improvement District - Oregon City Council has established the city as an energy special improvement district, a move that will enable businesses to draw on a federal grant to make energy efficiency improvements and repay the money as a special assessment with property taxes. Businesses taking advantage of the district can get financing for their improvements from a $15 million U.S. Department of Energy Better Building Program grant awarded to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and the city of Toledo in 2010. 9/18 McClatchy-Tribune Regional News

13.  Local Governments Launch Ambitious Energy Efficiency Program - Under the auspices of California's largest statewide joint powers authority, 14 California counties and 126 cities are today launching the nation's largest PACE program, an innovative financing tool to help commercial property owners reduce their buildings' energy and water use. The CaliforniaFIRST program, which is a program of the California Statewide Communities Development Authority, allows commercial property owners to use municipal bonds to finance energy efficiency, water efficiency and renewable energy upgrades–which the owners repay through a special assessment on their annual property tax bill. http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/09/18/4272526/local-governments-launch-ambitious.html

News Updates for the Week of July 23

1.      Study: Energy-Saving Light Bulbs Can Cause Skin Cancer - Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs popular among environmentalists are harmful to skin, researchers at a New York university have found.  Phosphor coatings on the bulbs wear off, the study from Stony Brook University on Long Island reported in the study published by in the journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology.  The scientists, led by Miriam Rafailovich, collected CFL bulbs from across Long Island to measure the amount of UV the bulbs gave off. They were alarmed thow many of the bulbs' phosphor coatings were lacking, causing them to leak significant levels of UVC and UVA.  Read more on Newsmax.com: Study: Energy-Saving Light Bulbs Can Cause Skin Cancer 

2.    ETS Focuses on Lighting Tax Incentives - Engineered Tax Services (ETS) www.engineeredtaxservices.com recently posted several lighting-focused articles on the 179D tax incentive program set to expire at the end of 2013.  179D was enacted by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to stimulate investment in energy-saving technologies, though it remains widely unknown in the lighting industry. Non-public commercial buildings (both new and renovated) can claim up to $60,000 for every 100,000 square feet of building space where qualified efficient lighting is installed.  Surprisingly, building owners and designers and engineers are all eligible to take advantage of this incentive, which can improve the ROI of a prospective project. And if the incentive was missed during the design phase, past projects completed after January 1, 2006 remain qualified. http://lighting.com/ets-lighting-tax-incentives/

3.      New Light Bulb Rules Go into Effect July 14 - New U.S. Department of Energy regulations outlaw the manufacture of traditional T12 tubes, the most common fluorescent bulbs in the country.  T12 tubes are 4 feet long and 11/2 inches in diameter. According to a Department of Energy report, American homes in 2010 used more than 330 million old-fashioned fluorescent bulbs. An additional 410 million were lighting offices and shops. 7/14 The Kansas City Star

4.      DOE Releases CALiPER Application Summary Report 16 - The U.S. Department of Energy has completed Series 16 of testing through the DOE Solid-State Lighting CALiPER program. A summary of the results is now available for download on the DOE SSL website at www.ssl.energy.gov/reports.html.  Report 16 analyzes the performance of a group of 13 LED products labeled as BR30 or R30 lamps. Results show substantial improvement versus earlier CALiPER testing of similar products, and that many of the LED lamps could be effective replacements for conventional directional lamps in the right application. The report also indicates the need for a broader range of LED lamps within product families in terms of lumen output and distribution type, and questions the adequacy of existing reflector lamp categories for LED products.

5.      Energy Savings Draw Consumers to Energy-Efficient Lighting Systems - As lighting accounts for more than 20 percent of primary energy use in commercial buildings in the United States, there is an urgent need to upgrade existing lighting systems.  New analysis from Frost & Sullivan's Analysis of the North American Lighting Equipment Market finds that the market earned revenues of $17.3 billion in 2011 and estimates this to reach $20.8 billion in 2016.  7/19 PRNewswire http://www.buildingtechnologies.frost.com

6.      Fluorescent Lamp Shipments Dim During First Quarter - NEMA’s shipment indexes for linear fluorescent T5, T8, and T12 lamps decreased during the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period last year. T5 lamps showed the largest decrease, declining 7.9%, while T8s and T12s declined by 5.5% and 5.0%, respectively. Despite posting year-over-year declines, shipments of T5 and T12 lamps grew by 6.8% and 4.9%, respectively, on a quarterly basis. Shipments of T8 lamps decreased 4.9% over the previous quarter. http://www.nema.org

7.      HID Lamp Shipment Indexes Show Growth for First Quarter - NEMA’s shipment indexes for high intensity discharge (HID) lamps returned to positive growth territory during the first quarter of 2012, with each lamp type showing year-over-year gains following negative growth to close out the final quarter of 2011. Sodium vapor lamps increased 2.9 percent, while shipments of mercury vapor and metal halide HID lamps increased 5.0 and 0.1 percent, respectively. http://www.nema.org

8.      DOE Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium - DOE created the Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium in 2010 to leverage the efforts of the many cities that are investigating LED street lighting products, often as a result of block grants and energy mandates--and increasingly with an eye toward creative financing arrangements. The Consortium provides a convenient way for cities to navigate multiple sources of information in just one stop, and offers such tools as the Model Specification for LED Roadway Luminaires and the Retrofit Financial Analysis Tool. To date, more than 350 municipalities, utilities, and government agencies have signed on as primary Consortium members, and momentum continues to build. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/consortium.html

9.      New York City Goes Green with Retrofit Lighting to Maximize Energy Savings - Commercial buildings in New York City including hotels, university housing, multifamily housing, medical and outpatient facilities, and commercial offices now have an opportunity to cut their energy costs and consumption. Building and property managers, building owners, facility engineers and directors, electricians and contractors can take part in a free webinar to learn more about new retrofitting technology and rebate programs on July 30, 2012.  TerraLUX Inc., an industry leader that designs, patents and manufactures LED-based lighting solutions for portable and general illumination applications, will be leading the webinar with retrofitting experts from UL, Con Edison/Lockheed Martin, and Smart Energy US.  Scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. EDT on July 30th, 2012 at:  http://www.terraluxillumination.com/2012/maximize-energy-savings-in-lighting-retrofit/

      10.  What’s New in HID Lamps and Ballasts by Craig Dilouie -Similar trends as fluorescent are driving innovation in high-intensity lighting, which is dominated by HID lighting. Within this segment, there has been a major technology shift from mercury vapor to metal halide over the past 10 years, and the market is trending in favor of white light. Innovation has focused on energy efficiency, longer life and controllability among higher-wattage lamps, and miniaturization and improved color performance among lower-wattage lamps that compete with halogen. Installed base of high-intensity discharge lamps in the United States, 2001 versus 2010. The HID lighting market has seen a significant technology shift in the past decade or so from mercury vapor to metal halide as a more-efficient, higher-performing white light source. Low-pressure sodium has also declined in popularity. Images based on Department of Energy data.  http://lightingcontrolsassociation.org/whats-new-in-hid-lighting/

 

11.  Drive to Standardize Outdoor & Street Lighting Controls - Several outdoor and street lighting industry players have allied to form a new global consortium with the aim of creating a globally accepted standard for a management software interface for outdoor lighting networks. Named TALQ www.TALQ-consortium.org the founders/participants are Harvard Engineering, Kingsun, Philips, Schréder, Streetlight.Vision and Thorn/Zumtobel. http://lighting.com/standardize-outdoor-controls/
 

12.  Lutron to Retrofit Empire State Building’s Lighting - Lutron Electronics, Coopersburg, Pa., will provide lighting controls for a major renovation of pre-built tenant spaces in the Empire State Building. The lighting controls are expected to provide total lighting energy savings of up to 65% and a reduced installed payback period of 2.75 years. The Empire State Building is undergoing a building-wide retrofit to improve energy efficiency and financial performance as part of the Clinton Climate Initiative’s Building Retrofit program. The project is designed to reduce the building’s energy use by 38% and energy bills by $4.4 million a year. http://www.lutron.com

13.  The Market for Wireless Power Systems Will Triple over the Next 8 Years, Surpassing $15 Billion by 2020 - Originating with simple inductive charging mechanisms that require a direct point of contact between charger (transmitter) and device (receiver), wireless power systems are evolving toward devices that connect to the wider power delivery infrastructure. As the technology matures and the industry consolidates, wireless power is beginning to see greater acceptance across a range of applications, and will become an increasingly common form of charging in the coming years. According to a new report from Pike Research, the market for wireless power systems–encompassing mobile devices, consumer electronics, industrial applications, infrastructure devices, and electric vehicles–will triple over the next 8 years, growing from $4.9 billion in revenue in 2012 to $15.1 billion in 2020.  http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/wireless-power

14.  Register for the AdVenture Marketing Conference - August 20-22, 2012 | Chicago, IL | Renaissance Blackstone. This conference is your chance to catch up on the latest marketing techniques while mingling with fellow marketers from the channel. Warren Janes, Maurice Electrical Supply Co., recently described one of the best reason to attend: "The beauty of AdVenture is that it is an audience of both Distributor and Manufacturers discovering how to market together." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eawBXUmnSkk

15. Housing Starts Show Yearly Gains in June - Housing starts increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 760,000 in June, up 6.9% from the revised May estimate of 711,000 and 23.6% above the June 2011 figure. Single-family housing starts in June were at a rate of 539,000, a 4.7% increase from the revised May figure of 515,000. The yearly comparisons showed gains across the country, with the West coming out on top with a 38.3% spike compared with June 2011. In the Midwest, single-family starts rose 15.7% and in the South, 14.2%. The Northeast showed a 19.4% increase. 7/19 HCN