ForceField Energy Inc., a designer, seller and distributor of energy products and solutions, today announced that it completed the acquisition of American Lighting & Distribution ("American Lighting" or "ALD"). Based in San Diego, California, American Lighting is a leading energy-efficient, commercial lighting specialist with over 20,000 installed customers and standing relationships with many major California utilities, including Pacific Gas and Electric Company ("PG&E"), Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric. ALD reported unaudited revenues of approximately $7.0 million in 2013, with adjusted EBITDA in excess of $900,000, or a 13% EBITDA margin.

Arenastaden is a new, trendy part of stockholm containing residential areas, shopping, offices and the centerpiece the Friends Arena. Friends Arena is Scandinavia’s biggest indoor Arena and holds up to 65,000 people. Tyréns, one of Sweden’s leading urban planning consultancies, won the assignment of planning lighting around the arena, in surrounding streets, bus terminals, ramps, roundabouts, squares, lifts and stairs. 

Tomorrow night in Washington DC, EPA and DOE will honor businesses and organizations for their outstanding contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emission through energy efficiency at the 2014 Energy Star Award ceremony.

LumiThera Inc., a medical device company focused on the development of non-invasive light emitting diode (LED) treatment for ocular disorders and disease, today announced it is a recipient of a Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Award (LSDF) grant. LumiThera was 1 of 5 recipients of the LSDF grants each worth $250,000 to provide for proof of concept studies.

Larson Electronics has announced the release of a 160 watt high intensity LED flood light. The LEDL-160W-1227 flood light offers high output from a compact form factor and is ideal for use in mining applications as well as heavy equipment, hunting, boating, vehicle, military, law enforcement and industrial manufacturing uses.

A lot has been discussed and studied on a bid to understand the most important question - Does light have any effects on human beings?  Light can be categorized into two shades, one being natural: produced by sun while the other is artificial light originating from an electronic display or device.

Elec-Tech released their fiscal 2013 financial report on April 27 2014. The company saw an increase in revenue for their LED business, owing to expansion in chip production capacity and further investment in NVC Lighting. 

The LED lighting market has seen a boom in growth starting in the last half of 2013. Rapid growth is attributed to price drops, government policies, and rising cost in power usage, according to investment group CLSA. These three catalysts are anticipated to drive up LED lighting penetration rate from 20 percent in 2013 to 44 percent by 2016.

Showa Denko announces that its proprietary LED lighting equipment and high-speed plant growth technology (Shigyo MethodTM) have been adopted by Gushiken Co., Ltd., a major bread maker in Okinawa.  The company, led by President Hisao Gushiken, is headquartered in Uruma City, Okinawa Prefecture.

Earlier this year, the Gerdau facility located in Knoxville, Tennessee began searching for a lighting solution that could replace their current metal halide fixtures and withstand the heat of its facilities, while maintaining enough lumens to create visibility in its dimly lit locations. Gerdau is a leading producer of long steel in the Americas and one of the largest suppliers of special steel in the world.

8 Northumberland Avenue's history is as colorful as the LED fixtures that now illuminate it. Built in 1887, the building operated as a 500-room first-class hotel until 1940, when it was requisitioned by the War Office. The building remained occupied by the Crown and inaccessible to the public until 2007, when it underwent a year-long, full-fledged restoration. It finally reopened its doors for general use in 2010, armed with brand new Philips Color Kinetics color-changing LED fixtures in the Old Billiard Room and Ballroom.

Students at Northeastern can display their feelings though a three-dimensional LED matrix set up on the side of Ryder Hall through a voting system. Students can select red for anxious, purple for exhausted, or blue for relieved.

Lee Farm announced that installation of Xeleum LED lighting in its public spaces and hallways has been completed at its corporate park location in Danbury Connecticut. Overall management of the project, which included installation of 107 Xeleum Cobalt 2 x 2 LED 24 Watt fixtures, was performed by USALED.

This week Philips gets even more aggressive with LED bulb pricing strategies, as its new Slimstyle LED bulb prices are slashed by more than half under Energy Star rebates to less than US$ 5 in the U.S. market. Major Japanese LED players also shift towards B2B models in search of better profits. Also in the Asia market San’an Opto’s patent and production expansion strategies will hurt Taiwanese manufacturers international business strategies. Finally, in the face of Taiwan’s nuclear energy crisis, a simple transition to LED could help cut considerable energy consumption, according to TrendForce report.

As Taiwan becomes embroiled in nuclear energy debates, pro-nuclear and anti-nuclear activists are becoming focused on alternative energy solutions and energy saving benefits. Taiwan could cut 45% of energy consumption by simply overhauling current luminaires with LEDs, resulting in lower power consumption and redistribute energy resources, according to a joint study by TrendForce research divisions LEDinside and EnergyTrend.  Considerable energy can be conserved from the lighting sector’s transformation alone, based on the research organization’s analysis of LED lights energy efficiency benefits, international market experience, and related statistics in Taiwan.

Unity Opto is optimistic about long term market development for LED lighting. The Taiwanese LED package manufacturer announced its plans to acquire a factory in the Wugu Industrial Park in Taiwan on April 24, 2014. The company will invest NT $1.23 billion (US $196.7 million) in acquiring the factory to expand its lighting production line. After expanding production capacity, it is estimated that monthly production will increase from 1 million units to 3 million units. 

MK350S was on market at end of year 2013, the adding new functions of CRI, COMPARE, LOG, LUX.G, BIN, CHCEKER, BROWSER and more than 30 lighting measurement units are try to fulfill all kinds of users. The lighting applications all over the human life are extending MK350S market to LED manufacture, cinema, lighting design, glasses design and plant factory industry.

Storm clouds are clearing for Taiwanese sapphire manufactures as sapphire substrate industry supply and demand returns to norm after years of financial loss. The rebounding industry has brought back investor confidence, which has spurred a wave of Taiwanese manufacturers to finance market strategies to acquire technological, capital, production capacity, and market share advantages.

Leyard announced first quarter 2014 financial results on April 23, 2014. Operating revenue grew 28.43 percent YoY to NT$ 142 million (US$4.7 million). Net income attributed to shareholders was NT$10 million, up 29 percent YoY. EPS increased 16.67 percent YoY to NT$ 0.07. 

HC SemiTek’s production capacity for patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) has reached 10,000 pieces per month with a self-supply rate of more than 50 percent, said Secretary of the Board Yeh Aimin on April 24 2014. 

Philips SlimStyle flat light bulb is the second Philips 60-W EQ LED to break the US$ 5 price point, accelerating adoption of quality LEDs for the home. Energy Star rebates have brought bulb prices down to US$ 1.97 in certain areas in U.S.

U.S. city Portland has installed blue LED lights next to red traffic lights at a six-way intersection to notify cyclists their bicycles have been detected, and traffic light will be changing soon to allow them pass through, according to a Oregon Live report. 

Awarding efforts focused on everything from composting and energy conservation to lighting retrofits and weed management, UC Santa Barbara’s The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) Grant Making Committee has selected its grant recipients for the 2013–2014 funding cycle.

Sunny weather all year round is now achievable with the installation of nanoparticle LED panels developed by designer Paolo di Trapani and Italy’s University of Insubri, according to a Gizmodo report.

PhoneSoap has unveiled its new Luma SmartLamp.  A campaign to fund the roll-out of initial production has been launched on the social media funding platform Kickstarter.

 Royal Philips announced the signing of its 400th licensee - Dotlux GmbH - to its LED Luminaires and Retrofit Bulbs Licensing Program, a growth of 100 licensees since May last year. Philips is committed to fostering LED industry growth and creating a level playing field by giving companies access to its wide portfolio of patented LED system technologies and solutions. By making available more than 210 inventions (comprising over 1200 granted patents), Philips aims to open up new business opportunities and possibilities for companies globally.

MultiLEDs can deliver bright light in all colors, as they contain red, green and blue chips. Therefore they give lighting designers a free hand when selecting colors, for example for automotive interior lighting. Now Peter Nowotny, an artist based in Regensburg, Germany, is using the tiny RGB light sources in several of his artworks and achieving impressive effects.

EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. introduces the ultra-thin 940nm top-view infrared LED IR92-01C/L491/2R in a miniature MIDLED package. This small SMD device has been developed for applications where high power output, narrow beam angle or available space is of concern. 

Innovations in Optics, Inc. introduces LumiBright™ UV Boards for high power UV LED applications such as UV curing, 3D printing, maskless lithography, photodynamic therapy, and fluorescence excitation in life science or machine vision. LumiBright UV Boards offer maximized heat and current spreading to deliver high UV optical power with superior thermal management and open platform flexibility that provides for totally unique and compact UV LED design solutions.

LED plant factories have seen substantial development in Taiwan recently, according to Apple Daily. Taking advantage of the flourishing industry, Tatung on April 23, 2014, announced their intention on entering the LED growth light market with their hydroponic vegetable business “In Fresh.” Tatung anticipates “In Fresh” to act as a new growth driver for the company.