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Philips Submits LED Light Bulb to US DOE as First L-Prize Contender; Settles Longstanding IP Battle with Epistar
Staff
September 24, 2009...The US Department of Energy (DOE) has its first submission for the Bright Light Tomorrow Lighting Prize (ref L Prize) for an LED-based replacement of the standard 60W A-19 "Edison" light bulb. Consumer manufacturing giant Royal Philips Electronics has made the submission in an effort to access a share of the $10M worth or prize money that has been authorized, as well as to gain access to lucrative US government procurement opportunities. A number of energy efficiency organizations and public utilities are involved in the extensive qualification processes, which include the DOE's laboratory-based measurements as well as durability and field testing that will evaluate additional subjective criteria garnered from real-world experience.
In comments offered by the DOE, Solid-State Lighting Program Manager Jim Brodrick said, “The race is on. Philips is the first to submit a formal L Prize entry, demonstrating their leadership and corporate commitment to energy conservation in lighting. Philips’ entry into the competition is a clear signal that massive energy savings from solid-state lighting are within our grasp. The field is wide-open, and we hope to see more entries from both large and small manufacturers.” While the DOE may be encouraging small manufacturer participation, challenges will remain for those smaller companies due to the substantial technological and resource effort that will be required. Submissions will include at least 2000 test units, and while the ultimate pricing for the L-Prize winner is hoped to be in a range that provides a reasonable payback to consumers, current cost models suggest that just those test units would represent a $250K to $500K investment on the part of the submittor. In addition, winners will need to provide evidence that "they are fully prepared to being production at a capacity that exceeds 250,000 units per year for the first year of production." (ref L-Prize submission criteria).
In other Philips news, it was jointly announced today by Philips and Epistar that the two companies have reached an agreement to amicably settle the current intellectual property disputes that have been raging between them for several years. Philips has granted Epistar a license under its AlInGaP LED technologies, and with that completed, all claims and counterclaims have been dismissed. According to the companies, the exact terms of the license will not be disclosed.
Los Angeles Begins Deployment on Street Light Light Program Expected to Save $10M Annually - Beta's LEDway (Updated)
SSLDesign News Staff
September 15, 2009...The City of Los Angeles has qualified LEDway street lights produced by BetaLED of Sturtevant, Wisconsin USA, as one of the participants in what is to be the nation's largest LED-based streetlight retrofit project. The LED streetlights will replace modern cobrahead fixtures in local and residential neighborhoods as part of the green streetlight program. BetaLED reports it has received and shipped orders totalling 4000 units to date, with 1000 retrofits underway right now.
The City’s plan reportedly includes retrofitting a total of 140,000 high-pressure sodium (HPS) luminaires to LED technology over the next five years. In an atypical approach, the city is not waiting until a relamping is taking place but is retrofitting working units on a pre-determined deployment schedule. Beta says that LED streetlights are expected to reduce the City’s energy usage by 40 percent and lower carbon dioxide emissions by 40,500 tons per year compared to high pressure sodium (HPS) systems This is the equivalent of taking 6,700 cars of the road. Furthermore, Bets says Los Angeles will save approximately $10 million annually from a combination of reduced energy usage and lower maintenance costs. BetaLED News Release,
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Oncor LED Lighting Provides Savings for American Airlines in Parking Garage
SSLDesign News Staff
September 24, 2009...American Airlines reports that it will soon be saving enough energy to run nearly 150 homes for one year after the airline replaced more than 1,600 traditional lighting fixtures with LED lighting at two parking garages. The multi-story parking garages are located near American Airlines Corporate headquarters in Fort Worth,Texas. American Airlines will receive an aggregate of $362,887 in incentives from Oncor's Take A Load Off, Texas LED Lighting Program over the next 12 months.
Oncor points out that its LED lighting gives off a clear, white, direct light from multiple small light sources that it says can improve security and visibility in parking garages. Oncor claims that the fixtures consume 60 percent less energy and last 50,000 hours or three times longer than traditional light sources, resulting in a reduction in maintenance costs and green house gas emissions. Lighting Science Group of Satellite Beach, Florida, the manufacturer of the LED based Low Bay Luminaires to be installed in the American Airlines parking garages, represented Oncor in the project.
Oncor contends that is one of the largest single installations of its type in the United States.
Oncor News Release,
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Albeo Solid-State Lighting Now Available Through Grainger
September 24, 2009...Albeo Technologies, a maker of a wide range of LED lighting fixtures, reports that
its customers will now be able to purchase its award winning C-Series solid-state lighting systems through Grainger. Grainger will offer Albeo's C-Series High-Bay, Linear, and GarageLED, Talea under cabinet-LED, plus T8LED Troffer and T8LED Conversion Kit lighting systems. The products will be available through Grainger's national branch network and the grainger.com website, and will also be featured in the company's 2010 catalog.
Albeo notes that W.W. Grainger, Inc. is a broad line supplier of facilities maintenance products serving businesses and institutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, India, China and Panama. It has an integrated network including more than 600 branches, 18 distribution centers and multiple Web sites.
"The demand for green building and green maintenance, repair, operations products is growing quickly, so the Grainger Albeo partnership is well positioned to succeed," said Neil Cannon, EVP of Business Development, Albeo Technologies. "Albeo's SSL products deliver energy savings, maintenance savings, eliminate mercury bulb recycling, and lower cooling loads enabling Grainger's customers to cut operating costs and offset the growing cost of energy."
"Our customers are telling us they're looking for help making their facilities more sustainable and energy efficient," said Fred Costello, Grainger's Vice President, Product Management. "Albeo's LED lighting systems are an excellent example of the types of products businesses and institutions can employ to do business in an environmentally responsible manner, while also taking cost out of their operations."
Albeo Technologies News Release
Renaissance Lighting’s LED Lighting Technology Wins Energy Star Qualification
SSLDesign News Staff
September 22, 2009...Renaissance Lighting, a maker of LED-based downlight fixtures, reports the U.S. Departement of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the Energy Star Qualification for 11 of its newest all-white solid state LED downlight fixtures. The Energy Star qualification is designed to help customers identify the most energy efficient products on the market. Renaissance Lighting, continues to excel in creating energy-efficient, ultra long-life solid-state luminaires with increased lighting efficiencies in terms of both light output and lower energy consumption. The company says that the Energy Star award for its all-white downlights is further validation of its continuing breakthroughs in technology and luminaire designs. Renaissance Lighting News Release, SSL Design PageTwo members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
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Commentary & Perspectives...
Some of what it will take to succeed as an LED lighting manufacturer
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
September 22, 2009...Being in the solid state lighting industry news business has advantages... all the latest and greatest come flying directly at you without having to spend a lot of time tracking it down. From there, when done properly, those solid state lighting industry announcements, press releases, and rumors are vetted for rationality, some quick investigation into the history or context is made, a clarification or two happens, and then it's a news story. Hopefully, we're doing that competently for you, and if not, let us know.
There are also disadvantages. An obvious one is that no one vets the stories for us, which means the deluge of information includes not just the good (which seems rare some days), but the bad and the ugly as well. We also get to experience the range of company interactions that demonstrate a well thought out strategy and professionalism at one end, or rank amateurism at the other. Again, there is more of the latter than the former, unfortunately. Which does dish back one advantage that is kind of scary... our interaction doesn't have hundreds of thousands of project dollars on the line, with success dependent upon whether the company knows what it is doing, or not.
Our view isn't so much "from the inside" but rather "from a different perspective that includes some less often visible elements". So we thought it appropriate to share our take on some of the elements that our 25 years in the technology and consumer-related sales and marketing fields suggest are required for a company to succeed. While some of these items may be gates, for which failure to pass will yield failure in the market, others can fairly be seen on a continuum, where more is better, but less isn't fatal.
Topping the list of gating items is technical competence. A company either has it, or it doesn't, and if it doesn't, market forces will soon wash the company away into history. This is the part where we find out if the product does what it says it does, if what it says it does is useful, and if it will keep on doing it for more than 1000 hours. Is there a bit of technical incompetence running around in the market? Oh, yes. Mostly with regard to being able to build a luminaire or "replacement lamp" the same way every time, and being able to accurately sample and test something that represents precisely how the next ones off the production line will perform. It doesn't matter if it's luminous output or color shift from batch to batch, or over time, but being able to design something that is manufacturable, reliable and long lived takes competence with both design and manufacturing practices. When a company has technical competence, especially if garnered from the electronics industry, they might assume that's the key, rather than a gate. When that happens, we get into the second success ingredient that a company may miss, and that, is...
A fully encompassing plan, along with the knowledge and experience to get it done. Don't mistake this for "some kind of plan" or even "an ambitious plan". While, "Our plan is to provide more than 70 lumens per watt to in a downlight product for commercial site applications." may sound good, there needs to be more to the story. How will it be marketed? Through reps, or distribution, both, or direct? If you're going direct, how do you plan to bring prospects to the website? If you're going through reps and distribution, how are you going to manage the margins and markup required for the lighting industry? This isn't the electronic industry's 20-30% for distribution and 6-10% for reps, you know. Who do you have that has lighting channel experience, and if you don't have anyone, where are you going to get the expertise? I was able to invest a little time on the phone recently with Luminus Devices' new President & CEO, Keith Ward. He was at the 100-day mark of his tenure, and acknowledged that, "There is still a lot to know." As he pointed out, "Luminus was born with great technology and a technology-centric view. While that was fun, a customer-centric view was needed for the long term." While they are bringing great "big-chip" technology to the table, and to some eyes, bending the DOE's roadmap a bit more sharply up than expected, the rise of the flat screen TVs ushered in the demise of the projection TV which was Luminus' bread and butter (as well as the showcase of their technical competence, which, when teamed as it is with Nichia's materials talent, is considerable). A quick re-focus to more diversified applications, including the customer-centric lighting market was needed. As Keith put it, "We didn't have enough lighting people leading the lighting division, which is why we sought out Peter Weller. Between he and I, we counted up 55 years in the lighting space," which suggests they can, and likely have, formulated a plan.
The plan also needs to include the money to get it done. From the money side, we're seeing a number of companies that birthed themselves assuming venture funding would be available when they needed to move from prototypes to some type of production. Unfortunately, they didn't plan on a credit and financing squeeze, and had no contingency plan for how they would bootstrap the company if venture funding didn't pan out. Oops. Now they've got a product that shows competence, some pilot units that have proved themselves, but no resources to supply samples to their eager reps or prospects, and not much capability to produce a product if they got anything besides a paid in advance order with a 90-day lead time. Didn't they think to pre-arrange something with a components distributor, including terms that let the money flow out just slightly later than when it will flow in? Or if 25-day receivable terms, and 30-day payable terms aren't doable, would arranging a line of credit when they launched kind of made sense? Maybe the issues aren't this basic all the time, but we see them often enough to suspect it's not uncommon for the newer lighting market entries riding the solid state lighting wave.
What about communications capabilities? We're obviously communications folks, and particularly sensitive (or critical) in this area. There is an old axiom that basically says you need to act to change the way you think, not vice versa. If you want to think like the LED lighting success you want to be, whether you're now a small company or a part of a large one, you need to communicate fully and professionally, both to your customers and the world at large. Does that mean paying big bucks for a "full service" PR firm? I tend to think not, as so far, most of the full service PR firms seem to plant themselves firmly in the middle of the information we need, creating delays and only relaying part of the story when we need the full one, right now. They aren't all that way, but what you really need is someone who can suggest a communications plan, add an understandable message, and that knows how to get that message exposed. The "one man band" is often very skilled at this, if they bring industry experience to the table. Find someone to help you communicate a message to the media and, more broadly, to the web. "We'll select someone to help us once we figure out our PR plan," is right up there with, "We'll consult with our doctor after we diagnose ourselves and set up our own surgery schedule," in its backwardness.
Successful companies are going to avoid arrogance, either at the factory or in their sales channels. This is an important one for a number of "established lighting companies" that are beginning to churn out some pretty decent LED products, but by no means limited to just that group. Sometimes it manifests because of technical arrogance... "We're semiconductor system gurus and no what it takes to design the best solid state lighting, and if you can't see that, you're stupid." Yep, we've gotten that attitude more than once. For those coming more from the lighting side, the trouble attitude is often more, "We're XYZ and everything we produce is good. If you can't handle our 60% markup don't even bother to ask for the data sheet... and if you do ask for a data sheet, don't plan to bug us with questions as that will just prove your ignorance." Seems obvious that won't win friends and influence people, but we're getting the stories coming our way that tell us it's happening.
Successful companies associate themselves with what serves the industry.
Every company has to make their own decisions where to invest for visibility,
whether it is with advertising, conferences, exhibitions or other "community"
activities, and in doing so, they need to consider what serves the industry.
An example is in the specification processes. Last I checked, you don't get
appointed to committees, you volunteer for them. When a standard setting body
asks for feedback, do you take the time to provide it? The US Department of
Energy just announced the 3rd draft of the Integral LED Lamp Criteria which
covers the majority of what you would consider to be LED-based replacement lamps
that screw or plug into sockets that incandescent and fluorescent currently
occupy (ref cover
letter and draft
criteria). The cover letter lets us know that 26 industry stakeholders offered
comments on draft 1, and 13 offered comments on draft 2. What's a stakeholder?
Oh, just every LED, driver, optic, module and replacement lamp manufacturer,
as well as every distributor, retailer and energy efficiency/utility organization
out there. Even if there were only 26 suggesting tweaks, shouldn't there be
several hundred comments saying "looks good to us". Another example
is industry events. We're big proponents of saying "no" to the "conference
puppy mills" as we call them, where non-industry affiliated organizations
come in to create an event that takes for them, and doesn't give back to the
industry. We're also big proponents of saying "yes" to events that
make it a priority to further the industry. Does that mean being the lead sponsor?
Not necessarily. But at least being there as an attendee to listen, and share
your take on the needs and responsibilities of the industry is what we see the
successful companies doing, even before they've "made it". Be around,
be visible, be involved, and let's get this thing right!
Don't miss the 2009 SSL Design Summit series, NY/NJ Nov 1-2, LA Dec 3-4, where lighting decision makers and luminaire manufacturers come together to get it right. Visit www.SSLsummit.com for details.
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