Sharp announced it has teamed up with Japan’s  Hiroshima Prefectural Technology Research Institute's Agricultural Center to develop moth repellent LED bulbs to prevent the nocturnal pests from destroying crops, and to suppress the lighting’s impact on crops.

The English town Blackburn, locates approximately 20.9 miles north of Manchester, received LED streetlight replacement about one week ago. The retrofit accidentally led to one local family sleepless for several nights.

According to a latest Bloomberg report, Fairchild Semiconductor International hired Goldman Sachs Group to help it find a potential buyer, potential suitors in the lineup include ON Semiconductor and Infineon.

VTT-originated Flexbright Oy and Russian company NNCRM have agreed on partnership to develop Flexbright's innovative LED foil project. This offers many business opportunities to further innovation and design making use of Internet of Things technology, for example.

Mason LED subsidiary announced Wednesday its subsidiary Rishang has formed a new LED joint venture with Changchun Railway Vehicles Facilities.

Forest Lighting, the USA division of global LED manufacturing leader MLS, announced it has received certification from The National Sanitation Foundation (NSF International) covering its T8 LED tube lamps. 

Chip Scale Package (CSP) has been in the LED industry for some time, and many manufacturers have followed in Lumileds footsteps and launched CSP LED products. Even LED package manufacturers are entering the field, but CSP applications are rarely seen in lighting applications.

Silver Spring Networks announced it has been selected to deliver an intelligent LED street lights network in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Silver Spring Networks will be deploying its award-winning smart street lights solution, including its Streetlight.Vision control software, to network 43,000 LED luminaires provided by LED Roadway Lighting, a manufacturer of smart lighting systems. Halifax is the capital city of Nova Scotia and, with more than 400,000 residents and geographic area covering almost 2,500 square miles, is the largest municipal area in Canada’s maritime province region.

When Sandia National Laboratories electronics engineer Chris Carlen got enthusiastic about flashlights containing high-power light-emitting devices (LEDs), he didn’t expect his hobby to lead to the creation of a new, high-speed LED driver that delivers lighting performance that exceeds that of conventional sources at a fraction of the cost.

OSRAM SYLVANIA has expanded the Hillsboro manufacturing capabilities by adding the first advanced Surface Mount Technology (SMT) production line for manufacturing LED modules in the plant.  OSRAM as the automotive lighting leader is pushing the transition to LED systems by investing in R&D and production capacities, infrastructure and talent to support the technology migration. 

As a part of the restaurant chain's continued commitment to making its restaurants and operations more socially responsible, the SUBWAY® brand has made LED lighting standard for all new and remodeled restaurants.  This important upgrade will provide energy-efficient lighting that, in 2014 with a small percentage of stores participating, saved 21.9 million kilowatt hours – enough energy to power 1,996 households in a single year.

Two years ago, Guangdong Rising Assets Management (GRAM) was a relatively unheard name in China’s LED lighting industry, but recently it has become one of the most recognized companies in the local LED industry, according to a Dazhaoming report. The motives behind the state-owned enterprise’s investments in top Chinese LED players Nationstar and Foshan Lighting reflect the involvement of important government strategies.

Round Rock, a city in Texas, U.S., is one of the first cities to conduct smart LED streetlight tests, according to Round Rock Patch’s report.

Royal Philips  announced that Abhijit Bhattacharya, who is currently CFO of Philips Lighting and project leader for the creation of  Lighting as a standalone company, has succeeded Ron Wirahadiraksa as CFO of Royal Philips, with immediate effect.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) have awarded US $1.7 million to study the novel use of light to suppress a broad group of plant pathogens affecting sustainable production of organically grown crops. 

According to recently released TechSci Research report, "United States Visible Light Communication Market Forecast &Opportunities, 2020", Visible Light Communication (VLC) market in the United States is projected to surpass grow at a CAGR of more than 20% during 2015 - 2020. The market is forecast to exhibit exponential growth during the forecast period on account of rising mobile data traffic, growing research & development activities, and increasing government support. Growing adoption of LED lights, coupled with rising awareness of high data transmission rate provided by VLC, is further driving the visible light communication market in the country.

CLEANLIFE® Energy, creators of clean and innovative solutions for commercial, residential and niche markets today announced that CLEANLIFE® has signed a comprehensive, worldwide patent license agreement with Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, for the LED Luminaires and Retrofit Bulbs Licensing Program

Low market demands in the past few months has driven Taiwanese LED manufacturer Harvatek to explore innovative LED technologies including forming a partnership that includes teaming up with Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) to develop LED thread and related technology applications

Chinese sapphire maker Aurora announced last week, it would be investing RMB 40 million (US $6.32 million) in a new investment management arm to integrate investments in the sapphire supply chain, according to a report from China Securities Network.

Ayla Networks, whose agile Internet of Things (IoT) platform provides comprehensive connectivity for any kind of product, announced that it has signed its first customer in Europe, Innr Lighting B.V. from the Netherlands. Innr is using the Ayla IoT platform, including Ayla’s Agile Mobile Application Platform (AMAP) technology, to scale its smart home lighting solution across Europe.

Kingston is a city nicknamed as K-Town in Ulster County, New York, U.S. The Common Council approved the city’s borrowing of US$ 2.1 million to install LED streetlights throughout the city. Early on, the council approved borrowing US$ 105,000 for design and engineering work for the project.

Japanese company Spread plans to construct a large fully automated vegetable factory capable of producing 30,000 heads of lettuce per day, according to a recent company statement.

The Government of Uttar Pradesh in India is distributing 200,000 LED bulbs in local city Pilibhit at a discounted price of INR 100 (US $1.54) to encourage residents to swap incandescent bulbs for LEDs, according to an India Times report.

Tata Power announced it has launched a LED tube light initiative in partnership with Osram India and other equipment manufacturers in Indian city Mumbai, reported The Hindu.

GE announced recently the creation of Current, a startup that combines energy hardware with a digital backbone to make power simpler and more efficient for customers.

Game action inside U.S. Bank Stadium is less than a year away, but installation of a high-tech lighting system that will benefit broadcast cameras and spectators has begun.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has developed a near ultra-violet and all-organic light emitting diode (OLED) that can be used as an on-chip photosensor.

Despite technological leaps in modern electronics, the quality of lighting they provide still leaves much room for improvement.

Clinching headlines this week, GE has announced it will be spinning off its new energy businesses including LED, solar energy, electric vehicle and energy storage into a separate entity. The new company will start off with US $1 billion financing and is expected to grow fivefold to US $5 billion in the next five years, according to a Bloomberg report.

China’s exports to 70 countries under its “One Belt, One Road” strategy was up 1.5% to US$ 372 billion from January to June 2015, according to China’s custom data. The country’s imports declined 18.8% to US$ 256 billion, while its trade surplus rose US$ 65 billion compared to last year’s US$ 115.5 billion. Vietnam is China's third largest trade partner, and it has a trade surplus relation with the country.