Archive for March 8th, 2010
LSG and Senergy aim to help municipalities adopt LED lighting
Lighting Science Group has entered a nationwide marketing and supply agreement with Senergy USA to offer LED lighting to municipalities.
LED lighting manufacturer Lighting Science Group Corporation (LSG) and Senergy USA, LLC, have entered into an agreement to coordinate marketing and supply efforts to American cities, counties and towns. Senergy USA provides municipalities with “environmentally appropriate” lighting solutions that offer significant and immediate cost savings with no capital outlay from the municipalities.
Under the agreement, Senergy will utilize the Lighting Science PROLIFIC series roadway luminaires to replace inefficient, high-pressure sodium cobra-head street lights.
“The PROLIFIC luminaires…will allow Senergy to offer municipalities a ‘triple-win’ for street lighting: immediate cost savings, massive reductions in lighting-related energy use, and superior lighting over the long term,” said Leon Silvera, Managing Partner, Senergy USA.
LSG claims that its PROLIFIC Series Roadway family has “substantially increased light efficacy when compared to other LED roadway fixtures currently available on the market.” The LSR2 has an output of 5890 lm at 79 lm/W efficacy, for example, while the LSR3 has an output of 9365 lm at 92 lm/W.
Currently, Senergy and Lighting Science Group say that they are working on half a dozen pilot programs representing over 200,000 street lights nationwide. The pilot programs are showing as much as 67% reduction in energy consumption, while meeting or exceeding existing safety-standard compliance.
LSG and Senergy estimate that a medium-sized municipality with 12,000 street lights can save over $700,000 per year, cut its carbon footprint by nearly 3,500 metric tons (equivalent to over 650 cars each year), and save nearly five million kWh/year, greatly reducing its exposure to volatile energy prices.
Everlight LED fixtures illuminate Boston parking lot
Posted by LED Larry in New LED Technology on March 8th, 2010
Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood experiments with energy-saving LED street-light technology and realizes better light coverage.
The City of Boston, MA just installed 20 Everlight SL-Dolphin LED street-light fixtures in the city’s first cobra-head replacement project. The 128W fixtures replaced 250W high-pressure-sodium lights.
Boston installed the LED lights in a parking lot in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood. The cobra-head deployment comes on the heels of a trial of acorn-style LED lights on Boston Common. As chronicled in our story on the Common trial, the city indicated it was in the process of identifying potential sites for cobra-head lights.
In the Jamaica Plain deployment, Boston projects greater than 60% energy savings based on the efficiency of the LED lights. The 50,000-hr projected life of the LEDs will also cut maintenance costs.
It turns out that the LEDs have also improved the coverage of the light in the parking lot. Bryan Glascock, Environment Commissioner for the City of Boston, said, “The high pressure sodium lighting we had in our municipal lot here in Jamaica Plain looked pretty dated and didn’t cover the lot well. The shadowed areas along with the strong orange hue made for a surreal scene at night. But these new LED cobra heads are sleek looking and provide even light levels across the parking lot without shadows, colors aren’t washed out, you’d think the lot was brand new.”
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| Everlight SL-Dolphin street lights |
According to Everlight, LEDs provide several other advantages relative to legacy street-lighting technologies. There is no mercury or other hazardous substance in LEDs. Issues with shock, vibration, and impact are diminished since there is no arc, tube, or glass that can break. The LEDs are instant-on and –off devices and offer better color rendering.
For the city, LEDs cut greenhouse gas emissions through the energy savings. The city’s Glascock said, “LED lighting is emerging as an important component of Boston’s efforts to reduce energy costs, shrink our carbon footprint and help meet Mayor Menino’s energy goals.”
Analyst questions LED backlight technology but still sees growth market
Steve Ohr discussed LED TV backlighting in an APEC Consumer session questioning the price and advantages of the technology while stating that even a bearish outlook promises growth.
The APEC conference featured a series of Special Presentations focused on application areas this year, and the lead session in the consumer space focused on LED backlighting for LCD TVs. Gartner Research Director Steve Ohr presented “The promise for LED backlights in consumer TVs” and questioned just how quickly LEDs will penetrate the application, but still offered a positive market outlook.
Ohr started the presentation stating, “I thought LEDs would be too expensive to use as backlights.” But Ohr noted that consumers seem to be buying the LED sets despite the price premium – and in many cases without a discernible difference in picture quality. Ohr questioned whether the edge-lit sets offer any real improvement in image quality relative to fluorescent-lit sets.
While Ohr noted that some analysts and the TV manufacturers are predicting 50% market penetration in 2010, he takes a much more conservative view. Ohr sees 50% penetration by 2013, but notes that bearish outlook still results in a $2 billion white LED opportunity in 2013
Ohr isn’t alone questioning some of the bullish forecasts. Strategies Unlimited’s Bob Steele also questioned some of the high market projections two weeks ago at the Strategies in Light conference. In his annual market forecast presentation, Steele noted that some analysts are projecting that 39 million LED-based TVs will ship in 2010 while he believes 22 million is a more reasonable projection.
Despite his analysis of the financials and questions about the advantages of LEDs in edge-lit configurations, Ohr said signs are pointing potentially to a more rapid adoption of LEDs. He stated, “Promotion of LED backlights may result in high consumer acceptance despite the higher price.”
Ohr also noted that there are signs in the semiconductor space that those companies see a more rapid transition than most expected previously. He noted that NXP had discontinued development of a new fluorescent driver IC. And he displayed a slide of a Marvell fluorescent driver data sheet with discontinued stamped across the sheet.
Ohr concluded stating, “We need $0.05 by 2013.” He questions whether the LED industry can deliver components at that price both because of the manufacturing and packaging cost, and the need to test and bin the products for intensity and color.
Instrument Systems buys the Light Measurement Division of X-Rite
Instrument System forms Berlin based Optronik subsidiary to integrate X-Rite’s Optronik-branded light measurement product portfolio.
Instrument Systems extended its broad portfolio of LED and light measurement technologies adding the Optronik product line from X-Rite in a recent acquisition. Instrument systems integrated the X-Rite portfolio into a newly formed subsidiary called Optronik Berlin GmbH thereby continuing the brand used previously on the X-Rite product line.
The Optronik product line targets the automotive and transportation engineering sector. The Berlin unit will continue to serve testing and certification institutes, suppliers of automotive light products, and many automobile manufacturers.
“This acquisition enables Instrument Systems to better satisfy future market demands for LEDs in general lighting applications and extend its lead in light measurement technology,” notes company president Richard Distl. “What’s more, all legacy customers of Optronik are sure to benefit from our expertise in spectroradiometry.”
Optronik’s main products include large goniophotometer systems, retroreflectometers, and photometers. Those products will add to the Instrument Systems portfolio that includes LED testers, light sources, and test software; as well as spectrometers, goniophotometers, and photometers.