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Metrolight, which has just received $9 million in a third round of funding from Gemini Israel Funds and Richard Branson's Virgin Fuels, has been riding a surge of demand for its high-frequency electronic ballast, a device for controlling high-intensity discharge (HID) lights--those bright lights used for illuminating department stores, large interior spaces and freeways. The system effectively provides the same amount of light as more traditional magnetic or electromagnetic systems, but requires less overall power, the company says. Additionally, the HID lights can be dimmed when no one is present or, if the light fixture is connected to the Internet, dimmed by a utility to prevent a brown-out. Some customers have seen their electric lighting and maintenance bills drop by around 50 percent, according to Metrolight.

Metrolight, which has just received $9 million in a third round of funding from Gemini Israel Funds and Richard Branson's Virgin Fuels, has been riding a surge of demand for its high-frequency electronic ballast, a device for controlling high-intensity discharge (HID) lights--those bright lights used for illuminating department stores, large interior spaces and freeways. The system effectively provides the same amount of light as more traditional magnetic or electromagnetic systems, but requires less overall power, the company says. Additionally, the HID lights can be dimmed when no one is present or, if the light fixture is connected to the Internet, dimmed by a utility to prevent a brown-out. Some customers have seen their electric lighting and maintenance bills drop by around 50 percent, according to Metrolight.

The savings claimed here are against CFL, FL and HPS - not tungsten! Cree, Inc, a manufacturer of LED solid-state lighting components, released the results of the first phase of the conversion of its Durham headquarters to LED lighting, which has resulted in the use of 48% less energy than the lights they replaced and plans to convert all lighting at the headquarters and manufacturing facility to LED lighting.

Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corp has decided to terminate the manufacturing of general incandescent light bulbs and stop all the relevant production lines in about 2010. This move is aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, the company said.

The Philips lighting company is pushing for businesses, municipal authorities and building owners/operators to switch to energy-efficient lighting as a way to reduce energy consumption.

A light-emitting diode (LED) (pronounced /ˌɛl.iːˈdiː/[1]) is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices, and are increasingly used for lighting. Introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962,[2] early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness.

"start up company Vu1 is adding another light bulb option (not to mention acronym) to the mix, the Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) bulb. The Vu1 ESL innovation re-purposes technology from our tried and true friend, the cathode ray tube (CRT) television. ESL uses accelerated electrons to stimulate phosphor and create light, thus making the bulb surface glow."

"Mexican government's Special 2010-2012 Climate Change Program. * Quintana Roo Governor Félix González Canto has announced plans to install 25,507 high-efficiency GE LED street lights in the town of Othón P. Blanco * The pioneering initiative represents the largest LED street lighting installation in Latin America, saving the town 51% on energy "

You can start typing your 'cut out the misleading headlines' comments now if you like, but just because no other nation in the world recognizes the three-acre country of Dumpling Island, off the Connecticut/New York coast, doesn't mean I'm going to knock down island-owner and Segway inventor Dean Kamen's claims that his private island isn't part of the United States. In any case, independent nation or no, Dumpling Island has indeed become a net zero energy (shall we agree on?) locale. How? By replacing all the light fixtures on the island with LED lights:

Replacing environmentally unfriendly fluorescent tubes with digital lighting in refrigerated display equipment drastically lowers energy consumption

Thankfully, designers continue to explore solar powered public lighting. This version includes more intelligent functions.

Compared to electrified lighting, this is quite a negative impact for copper, but if we set the baseline as no lighting, it becomes quite positive. Referring to my recent post on the impact blog, the impact of this technology is probably positive in the short run, but long-term negative.

It seems that in the last decade scientists have switched goals from producing efficient LEDs to producing "natural light" LEDs. However, whenever this was achieved, significant efficiency sacrifices were made to enable experimentation to work. Through use of a nano-crystaline coating, it seems that scientists at Bilkent University, Turkey have succeeded in creating an LED that "produces attractive white light while wasting next-to-no electricity". The definition of attractive is that for each watt of light produced, around 300 lumens are visible to the human eye. This compares with fluorescents which produce around 80 lumens per watt, according to the article. There is however a barrier to market. This is because the nano-crystalline coating is expensive and apparently difficult to produce.

CeeLite, a Blue Bell, Pa.-based start-up has devised a thin, bendable light source that can be integrated into walls or wrapped around poles. The company is in the midst of trials with 32 cities, which are putting signs equipped with CeeLite's light on the sides of its buses.

The World Bank hopes to bring modern lighting to one-fourth of Africa's people by developing markets for products not hostage to fossil fuels or the continent's lamentable electricity grid. The bank and its private investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), say their "Lighting Africa" programme aims to bring light to 250 million sub-Saharan Africans cut off from existing power infrastructure by 2030. "Modern lighting will mean improved air quality and safety for millions of people in Africa," S. Vijay Iyer, the bank's energy sector manager for Africa, said in a statement. "It will mean longer reading hours for students and longer business hours for small shops."

"Pike Research, who just released a report predicting that LEDs will account for almost half of the $4.4 billion commercial lighting business within the next decade."