LED

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I have been rather skeptical about the progress of LED’s. While I do believe they’ll play a major role in lighting design, I also believe they have some way to go before they’ll be “ready for primetime.” Enter the DOE and the L PRIZE. The Department of Energy initiative is designed to stimulate competition and innovation in the solid-state lighting arena by offering incentives to develop energy effiecient lighting sources that can replace our incandescent/halogen sources. From the L PRIZE website:

The L Prize competition will substantially accelerate America’s shift from inefficient, dated lighting products to innovative, high-performance products. Just as Thomas Edison transformed illumination over a century ago, the L Prize will drive innovation and market adoption.

The L Prize is the first government-sponsored technology competition designed to spur lighting manufacturers to develop high-quality, high-efficiency solid-state lighting products to replace the common light bulb.

The DOE is offering support in terms of testing and financial backing to the most promising of innovations. I hope this kind of program will get LEDs ready for primetime. I’m always skeptical about government becoming the artibtor of quality, but here are the basic guidlines for the two running contests. I would love lighting geeks like me to weigh in on this one. 

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