A glut of manufacturing capacity and near-collapse in rare earth metal prices is driving down the cost and hence encouraging the rapid take-up of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting. LED lights are based on semiconductors and therefore do not require traditional lamp manufacturing expertise. This has opened opportunities for LED chipmakers to challenge the incumbent incandescent light bulb manufacturers such as Philips, Osram and General Electric (GE), who have enjoyed a near-monopoly of the market according to an FT article. The Financial Times believes LED te...

Toshiba Corporation will begin mass production of white LEDs on 200mm silicon wafers this month based on technology that it licensed and developed with Californian firm Bridgelux. Deployment of Toshiba and Bridgelux’s gallium nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology to produce LED chips, has allowed Toshiba to replace sapphire substrates and produce the chips on a more cost-competitive silicon substrate. Production of LED chips is typically done on two to four-inch wafers with an expensive sapphire substrate but Toshiba and Bridgelux have developed a proce...

The LED market has seen a growing market and policy support, with LED lights becoming trendy products globally, especially in developed regions such as Europe, the USA, Japan, South Korea and beyond. In China, the application of LED products picked up in the year 2008, including LED street lights, solar LEDs, LED full-color displays, consumer electronic LED lights and so on. During 2009 and 2010, China's LED industry had a prosperous development, with certain technological breakthroughs. Meanwhile, the development of LED lighting will drive the pro...

- Stylish LED Lamps with Patented Thermal Design for Reduced Energy Consumption - GlacialLight, a division of the Taiwanese technology manufacturer, GlacialTech Inc., has launched the new stylish GL-AR111-V2-12 Vega Series interior LED lamps with patented thermal design – helping to boost heat dissipation. Following the 9W GL-AR111-V2-9 Vega Series, these 12.5W lamps are the second addition to the cost-effective and environmentally-friendly Vega Series LED lamps. These 12.5W GL-AR111-V2-12 LED lamps offer a luminous efficacy of up...

GE Lighting is pleased to announce the launch of its brand new Asia website.The new website will offer users a more friendly and convenient browsing experience as well as an ideal visual effect, which embody GE Lighting’s consistent focus on user experiences. The new website has a contemporary and crisp look in line with GE Lighting’s corporate brand identity. It provides users a streamlined experience with resources and functionality that are designed to serve the lighting industry and strategic end-users. GE Lighting’s latest digital platform provides ...

Full Circle curvilinear luminaire recognized as one of the most innovative building products.  The Winona® Lighting Full Circle luminaire from Acuity Brands has been acknowledged as one of the most innovative and useful building products of 2012 by Architectural Record. A panel of judges selected the Full Circle luminaire as a lighting solution for architects, specifiers and designers to help distinguish the best product options for 2013 projects. The Full Circle luminaire breaks away from traditional recessed linear fluorescent slot fixtures. It allows light ...

Future Lighting Solutions, a division of Future Electronics, and LG Innotek, an affiliate of LG Group, announced today a strategic worldwide distribution agreement that will introduce LG Innotek’s entire portfolio of LED lighting solutions to the market. The portfolio features one of the industry’s broadest selection of LED products to fit virtually any lighting application, from LED packages to integrated solutions. Future Lighting Solutions’ extensive LED expertise, from design support services to world class supply chain and business solut...

Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc. (RVLT), a leader in advanced LED lighting technology, today announced that it has closed its acquisition of Seesmart Technologies, Inc. Seesmart, based in Simi Valley, California, is a leading LED solutions provider with a broad range of products serving the commercial, industrial, and institutional lighting markets. Seesmart's exclusive network of over 50 distributors has completed hundreds of LED projects in both retrofit and new construction applications. Seesmart has become a leader by combining a full line of high-qu...

The product’s recall began this week, after Philips discovered there was an issue concerning a potential electrical current leakage which may occur after the lamp has been on for 30 minutes.   The spotlights are sold predominantly to wholesalers in 50 countries based in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Philips started contacting wholesalers this week to tell them about the affected product and has begun sending out replacement stock. Philips said the amount of lamps of this type sold globally is 250,000 but not all production batches are affected. In the UK...

The retailer has installed luminaires supplied and adapted by Edge Lighting, incorporating GE Lighting’s Infusion LED modules, at its new store in Ipswich. Some 500 LED modules were fitted throughout the store, including non-trade areas, and the lights were turned on a few weeks ago. Barry Ayling, lighting design manager at John Lewis said the lighting average benchmark across the John Lewis business is 30 watts per square metre based on ceramic metal halide lights, but the equivalent figure for the Ipswich store is just 10 watts per square metre. Ayling to...

The 2012 Lighting Year began with the historic phase-out of the incandescent light bulb. The year continued with the 50th anniversary of the light-emitting diode (LED) in October and ended in December with yet another Greatest LED. Despite overcapacity and slim profit margins, Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) and other manufacturers bounced back to confound naysayers and short-sellers. LED streetlights began to seriously climb the S-curve of adoption. And LEDs in lighting are staging a reported 44 percent year-on-year gain, with 9.8 percent growth for LEDs overall. ...

Lextar, a LED subsidiary of AU Optronics (AUO), has announced its merger with Wellypower, another AUO subsidiary. Lextar noted that demand for high-power chip-on-board (COB) products has been growing, hence 2012 COB packaging product shipments are likely to show 400-500% on-year growth. Market observers expect Lextar to report NT$600-700 million (US$20-24 million) for December revenues and sales in the first quarter of 2013 to be flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. The official merger date is set for February 1, 2013. Lextar stated that the LED ...

Atlanta Botanical Garden Made Forbes' List for Top Ten Most Dazzling Light Displays Lighting Science Group Corporation® (OTCQB: LSCG), congratulates the Atlanta Botanical Garden for being recognized on the Forbes list of "ten most dazzling light displays in the world." For the second year, Lighting Science® partnered with the Atlanta Botanical Garden's seasonal lighting exhibit, "Garden Lights, Holiday Nights," which features uniquely custom designed, color-changing orbs. "We were absolutely thrilled to...

Philips Lumileds and Future Lighting Solutions, a division of Future Electronics, announced today they have restructured their long-standing distribution agreement. The new arrangement allows both companies to build upon their long-standing relationship while creating new opportunities for additional partnerships. The new agreement builds on a relationship that has enabled the growth for both companies through the development of solid-state lighting solutions worldwide. "Our restructured agreement allows us to continue our collaboration with a long-term, trusted and success...

Shenzhen General Technology use LED technology to reduce Energy, Maintenance and Accidents Osram’s versatile Oslon SSL series are applied in Xishan Duerping coal mine lighting in Shanxi Province, the so-called “home of coal” in China.  The 19,500 LEDs are installed in 975 lamps, replacing the traditional fluorescent lamps, to light up the 63.1 square km high wattage coal mine.  They enable energy savings of 61% (from 427050 kilo Watt hour down to 170820 kilo Watt hour annually), as well as reduce maintenance requirements and accident r...

Luxury Home + Design Boutique Firm to Partner with Modernist Lighting Brand and Designer Legend DRS and Associates, a full-service, marketing and public relations agency renowned for guiding and branding major home design and architectural brands and building materials, has been named agency of record for Sonneman® – A Way of Light. DRS will oversee the seamless integration of Sonneman – A Way of Light’s public relations, advertising, digital and social media campaigns. Work on the account begins immediately. “In choosing a partne...

Government institution installs state-of-the-art integrated lighting control system as part of $4.4 million modernization and renovation project.   The Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) reduced its electrical load by 70 percent with help from Lithonia Lighting® RT Series LED luminaires embedded with nLight® technology from Acuity Brands Inc. (NYSE:AYI). This installation helps IPERS meet both its short-term energy savings goals for its 43,000-square-foot building, as well as position IPERS to achieve its l...

Three San Francisco neighborhoods will test energy-saving streetlights and wireless systems controlling in 2013, and ultimately the technology could be used to control all 18,500 city-owned lamps and other devices such as traffic signals and surveillance cameras. Eight companies have been selected under a San Francisco Public Utilities Commission  pilot program, and they will each receive a $15,000 stipend to demonstrate what their wireless streetlight systems can do. The technology will be tested in the Sunset, Presidio Heights and downtown neighborhoods. If all goe...

Recently, Shenzhen Spark Optoelectronics S&T CO., LTD, has won the biding of Ganchong Highway Lighting Project (from Ganzhou to Chongyi), which is a very important part of Xiacheng National Highway (from Xiamen to Chengdu). Around ten thousand lights will be applied in this project, including LED Tunnel light, Street light and Fog light. It is reported that Ganchong Highway is not only a major thoroughfare connecting southeast coastal area and southwest in China, but also the most difficult highway constructed in Jiangxi Province so far with the bigg...

GT Advanced Technologies (NASDAQ: GTAT) announced its guidance range for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2012 and provided its preliminary outlook for fiscal year 2013 ending December 31, 2013. For Q4CY12 and CY12 the company provided the following guidance: •    Revenue in the range of $95 million to $102 million in Q4CY12; $726 million to $733 million in CY12 with approximately 62% of CY12 revenue from polysilicon, 31% from sapphire, and 7% from PV •    The company expects to take a charge of $80 million t...

Philips Taiwan has set up ambitious goal for 2013 LED lighting sales. According to Philips Taiwan President Edward Po, the company plans to boost its sales of LED lighting equipment in Taiwan by two to three folds in 2013 from 2012, and the number of its residential lighting showrooms will increase to seven by the end of 2013. Recently, at an international building-materials trade show held in Taipei, the company promoted its iF-awarded and Red Dot-awarded LED residential lighting products as well as LED intelligent lighting control system. In Po’s opi...

Plessey Semiconductors Ltd of Plymouth, UK has won the Solid-State Lighting Application Category of the Elektra Awards 2012 for its new MAGIC (MAnufactured on GaN ICs) High Brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs). The winners were announced at the European Electronics Industry Awards ceremony in London last week. Plessey’s MAGIC HB-LEDs are manufactured on standard silicon substrates, rather than on sapphire or silicon carbide, using industry standard, high volume processing. The firm’s technology uses gallium nitride (GaN) on 6-inch ...

Mitsubishi Chemical plans to seek for Chinese companies, to contract for its production of LED fluorescent powder in 2013. And the output of fluorescent powder is expected to be twice as current. The Japanese company holds 50%-80% global market share for red fluorescent powder, and it intends to manufacture red fluorescent powder in mainland China, and has invested 400 million JPY to acquire 30% shareholding in Beijing Nakamura-Yuji Science and Technology Co. And the latter will become OEM for Mitsubishi after the completion of technology transfer....

Lighting Science Group Corporation®, announced the appointment of Jeremy Cage as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 2, 2013. Cage replaces Brad Knight, who served as Interim CEO while the Board worked with an executive search firm, and who will continue to serve as Chief Operating Officer. Over the past decade, Cage served in key executive positions at PepsiCo, Inc., including Senior VP of Innovation and Insights for its U.S. Beverage business, Chief Marketing Officer of International Foods, and, most recently, Senior VP of the Glo...

NASA's planning a test to replace fluorescent lighting panels in the ISS with a solid-state LED lighting module which produces blue, white, or reddish light depending on the time. It hopes that this change will serve as a counter-measure to the inevitable disruption of the body's circadian rhythm while in space — this would hopefully reduce insomnia, which can have a host of deleterious effects while in space. Sleep in space has long been a concern for NASA — back in 2001, a study showed that 50 percent of some Space Shuttle crews relied on medicat...

Philips Color Kinetics announced IntelliPower, its newest innovation for delivering high-bandwidth LED lighting control using existing electrical and physical infrastructures. IntelliPower makes it easy to deploy intelligent, digitally controllable LED lighting solutions in any situation where re-wiring is not desirable or feasible, including historic buildings, in-ground systems, bridges, and monumental exteriors. With IntelliPower, Philips Color Kinetics is building on its expertise and leadership in LED lighting to deliver the benefits of a state-of-the-art LE...

Recently, the United State has announced the release of LED lighting development plan for 2012. According to the plan, the major purpose for LED solid state lighting is to reduce cost, improve the luminous efficiency as well as reduce retail price. In addition, the plan also predicted that the cost for LED chip and package in 2020 would reduce by 80% compared with 2012, and retail prices of 60W equivalent LED would reduce by 66% in contrast to 2013. Meanwhile, the luminous efficiency will increase by 60~100%....

Toshiba Corporation will start sales of white LED packages this month. Production of LED chips is typically done on 2- to 4-inch wafers with an expensive sapphire substrate. Toshiba and Bridgelux have developed a process for manufacturing gallium nitride LEDs on 200mm silicon wafers, which Toshiba has brought to a new production line at Kaga Toshiba Electronics Corporation, a discrete products manufacturing facility in northern Japan. Mass production of packages using the new line's output starts this month. Deployment of Toshiba and Bridgelux's new GaN...

India's power ministry intends to install about 25 million LED bulbs over the next 3-4 years to electrify Below Poverty Line (BPL) households. Besides, the power ministry also proposes to provide financial incentives to fan manufacturers under SEEP, to produce super efficient fans, which will be available in the market to any consumer at a discounted price. This initiative under the government's Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) - the rural electrification programme - is to promote LED bulbs under the Super Efficient Equipment Prog...

Pacific Northwest National Laboratories is in the process of developing new LED light bulbs, to change the future of electricity. As LED bulbs play a key role for electricity saving, the Department of Energy creates a competition to build a better light bulb to cut down America's electricity use. According to Jeff McCullough, a PNNL light researcher, "The L Prize competition is intended to move the market to challenge manufacturers to develop the better light bulb. In order to do that we have to do some specialized testing and make sure this technolog...