DOE Grants $37 Million For Efficient Lighting Industry

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The U. S. Department of Energy on Jan.15 pledged $37 million of funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act towards research projects in high-efficiency solid-state lighting, which includes light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Lighting is part of the government’s focus on promoting energy efficiency as lighting accounts for a quarter of all electricity generated in the U.S. The advancement of LED lighting is aimed at reducing energy consumption for lighting by one third by 2030.

DOE selected 17 projects to receive funding in the areas of research, development, and deployment. The awards have been made in conjunction with $28.5 million in private industry cost share, DOE said.

In making the announcement, Secretary Steven Chu emphasized that the U.S. must be leaders in energy efficiency. The funds going to research in energy efficient lighting will serve to reduce our energy consumption and environmental impact, save money and support an industry that will create new jobs.

Funds were awarded to Cambrios in Sunnyvale, Calif., University of Rochester, and WhiteOptics, LLC in Newark, Del., for core technology research. Funds for product development will go to Cree, Inc., General Electric, Lightscape Materials, Inc., Osram Sylvania Products, Inc., Philips Lumileds Lighting Company, LLC, and PPG Industries. Support for the manufacturing side has been slated for Applied Materials, Inc., GE Global Research, GE Lumination, KLA Tencor Corp., Philips Lumileds Lighting, Ultratech, Inc., Universal Display Corp., and Veeco Instruments.

This is the sixth allocation of funds by DOE for solid-state lighting core technology research and product development, and the first time that DOE has funded solid-state lighting manufacturing projects. The inclusion of funding to manufacturing research is part of a new DOE initiative to achieve manufacturing improvements that reduce costs and improve quality.

In the last year, DOE has made numerous, significant contributions to research on energy efficiency, energy innovation, building retrofits, lighting, geothermal energy, hydropower, algae biofuel and cleaner vehicles.