Officials from the Maharashtra state located in western-central India has announced plans of replacing CFL streetlights in 43,665 villages with LEDs, reported Moneycontrol.com.

Once, Inc., a technology company specializing in photobiology and optogenetics, announced the submission of its Petition to the California Energy Commission (CEC) to repeal the 2016 Building Energy Efficiency Standards (Standards). The Standards pose additional requirements for lighting companies and fall in line with the scientifically disputed view that lighting operating under 200 Hz is unpleasant to humans due to flicker and less energy efficient. The Standards impose additional data reporting requirements that would increase the cost of production, which ultimately translates to an increase in cost to the consumer.

In a vote 7-1, city officials of Seguin in Texas, U.S. approved the purchase of LED lights to be installed in the downtown area, and agreed to year-round illumination before sunset till 10:00 PM, reported Seguin Gazzette.

On March 1, 2016, Samsung Electronics, the world’s second largest semiconductor supplier, signed a comprehensive strategic partnership MOU with Shanghai Wellmax Lighting Industry (WELLMAX) at Samsung Electronics’ Shanghai head office. The MOU identifies WELLMAX as one of Samsung Electronics’ first group of global ingredient brand partners together with top brands including GE and The Home Depot. WELLMAX is the first and so far the only company that receives Samsung’s ingredient brand authorization in China.

One of the markedly visible changes to China’s latest lighting standard GB7000.1-2015, which addresses luminaires general test requirements, is the introduction of blue-light hazard regulations, stated the Machinery and Electrical Products Testing Center under Shanghai’s Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

Osram Sylvania is introducing a novel strategy to reduce LED bulb manufacturing costs, and keep it competitive on the market, according to a report from Forbes.

AIXTRON SE, a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, today announced that Plessey Semiconductors Ltd. has ordered an AIX G5+ C cluster system for the production capacity expansion of gallium nitride LEDs manufactured on silicon wafers (GaN-on-Si). The tool is scheduled for delivery in the third quarter 2016.

Li-Fi inventor Professor Herald Haas from University of Edinburgh, UK has been trying to convince the Indian government about the advantages of using Li-Fi integrated solar panels, according to a recent LiveMint report.

Europe’s technology leaders in the development of flexible OLEDs for lighting and signage applications have joined together in a consortium to develop an open access pilot line that will accelerate the commercial adoption of this promising new technology.

Universal Display Corporation , enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, announced a collaboration and evaluation agreement with OSRAM, one of the world's leading lighting manufacturers. Under the agreement, OSRAM will begin sampling Universal Display’s proprietary PHOLED™ phosphorescent OLED materials for solid-state lighting applications.

A team led by Prof. Tae-Woo Lee (Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering) at POSTECH have fabricated highly-efficient, solution-processed fluorescence organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using pure-organic thermally-activated delayed-fluorescence (TADF) emitters. The research was published in Advanced Materials journal. This research is selected as a most significant paper and open to the public as a "Layman's abstract".

A Paris-based startup company Glowee is developing a bacteria lighting, using bioluminescent glow to light up shop windows and street signs, reported New Scientist.

With just a tiny tweak, researchers at Kyushu University greatly increased the device lifetime of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that use a recently developed class of molecules to convert electricity into light with the potential for increased efficiency at a lower cost in future displays and lighting.

Luxonic has expanded its offering with the opening of its first sales office in Scotland. The business’s new Glasgow base will further Luxonic’s already strong operation across the UK, adding to existing offices in Manchester, Belfast and Luxonic’s HQ and manufacturing facilities in Basingstoke.

The U.S. government’s blockage of Go Scale Capital’s acquisition of former Philips LED component business Lumileds in January 2016, has not deterred the Chinese manufacturer from bidding for Philips Lighting, reported Bloomberg Monday.

Toshiba Lighting and Technology is exiting the consumer market in China, and will be selling all related business operations to local appliance maker Konka Group, according to a recent Nikkei report.

A group of tourists got Wayne Thomson, chairman of Niagara Falls (Ontario) Tourism, thinking about upgrading the lighting of the well- known fall, reported Buffalo Business First.

Indian states Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir have become the latest to implement LED lighting replacement projects under the country’s Domestic Efficient Lighting Program (DELP), according to Indian media reports.

LED A-line lamps surged 226.7% during 4Q15 on a year-over-year basis. Meanwhile, halogen A-line lamps posted a year-over-year increase of 8.7%, and incandescent A-line lamps increased by 7.8 % while compact fluorescents lamps (CFL) dropped 56%. Compared to 3Q15, LED shipments rose 18.4 percent, halogen A-lines increased 0.8%, and CFL shipments saw a quarter-to-quarter increase of 6.5%. In contrast, incandescent A-line lamp shipments decreased 16.7% on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

With ties to many major international companies in over 40 markets, Mackwell has appointed a General Manager of Middle East, India and Africa (MEIA) to oversee the business strategy in this region, further develop connections and market share in the UAE region and develop Mackwell’s presence in this fast-expanding market. René Joppi, was chosen for the position because of his vast experience in DALI, Lighting Controls, Emergency Lighting and software development, gained during his time with Zumtobel Group, plus his ability to advise on the legislation and regulations associated with emergency lighting in that region. 

Orion Energy Systems, Inc. , a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance, energy-efficient retrofit lighting platforms, today announced Vac-Con®, Inc., a Florida-based manufacturer, has again selected Orion lighting for a major facility expansion. The project features a combination of first and second generation HARRIS LED High Bays.

There has been quite some activity in the Middle East and African lighting markets lately. One of Middle East’s largest LED installation projects has been rolled out by Dubai this week, and under the government project 160,000 LED light bulbs will be installed in 2,000 new houses. In Africa, the Zambian government’s decision to phase out incandescent bulbs has encouraged local LED manufacturer The Zambia Electrometer to scale up annual LED bulb production by four times to 2 million LED bulbs.

Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have for the first time experimentally demonstrated that copper nanophotonic components can operate successfully in photonic devices - it was previously believed that only gold and silver components have the required properties for this. Copper components are not only just as good as components based on noble metals, but, unlike them, they can easily be implemented in integrated circuits using industry-standard fabrication processes. "This is a kind of revolution - using copper will solve one of the main problems in nanophotonics," say the authors of the paper. The results have been published in the scientific journal Nano Letters.

Elemental LED, a leading U.S. based engineering and technology company that manufactures LED lighting solutions announced today a partnership with sales agency Lightspec that extends the Diode LED product brand into upstate New York. Elemental LED and its wholesale and manufacturing division, Diode LED provides a wide variety of superior quality linear, task, and accent LED lighting solutions for both residential and commercial applications.

Crisp white LED streetlights rolled out by European and American cities have not always been welcomed by local residents, many have complained about its strong glare and unforgivingly powerful light beams streaming through windows that have been compared to transforming living rooms into football fields by upset residents.

Tridonic Jennersdorf GmbH, a subsidiary of Tridonic GmbH & Co KG, Dornbirn and part of the Zumtobel Group, has entered into a settlement agreement with the AOC International (Europe) B.V. and AOC International (Europe) GmbH for the use of silicate-based white LEDs. 

NEMA’s Electroindustry Business Conditions Index (EBCI) for current conditions in North America fell back in February, dropping to 44.4 from 50 the previous month as more panelists reported conditions eroded than improved. Compared to January, smaller shares of the survey panel reported both that business conditions improved (22% in February compared to 41% in January) and that they deteriorated (33% in February compared to 41% in January). A plurality of panelists (44%) claimed conditions were unchanged in February. A considerably smaller 18% held this view a month ago.

SoraaLaser, a world leader in commercialization of visible laser light sources, will present its innovative light source technology at Strategies in Light conference, March 1-3, in Santa Clara, CA. These advanced light sources feature unique performance properties such as collimated output and waveguide delivery, and provide compelling advantages over LED, OLED, and legacy sources in specialty lighting.

Cree, Inc. records another LED industry first with the demonstration of a single high-power LED delivering nearly 1,600 lumens at 134 lumens-per-watt (LPW) with similar color quality as an incandescent light bulb. With this result, Cree achieved a breakthrough 25 percent increase in lumens per watt (LPW) over production LEDs of similar color quality under operating conditions found in real-world LED lighting applications. This important milestone coupled with Cree’s latest SC5 Technology™ platform will lead to LED systems with increased performance, lower cost and better light.

Panasonic Corporation, Japan, Panasonic Lighting Europe , Germany and Tridonic, a leading manufacturer of lighting components and part of the Zumtobel Group of Austria, today announced that they have entered into a patent license agreement. With this agreement the parties grant each other a license to use certain patents in the field of lighting electronics, mainly in the field of control and operation of LED light sources. The specific terms of the settlement will remain confidential.