The Energy Blog

FYI: GE Demonstrates World's First ''Roll-to-Roll'' Manufactured Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs

Press release - GE Global Research and GE Consumer & Industrial in conjunction with ECD announced the successful demonstration of the world’s first roll-to-roll manufactured organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting devices. This demonstration is a key step toward making OLEDs and other high performance organic electronics products at dramatically lower costs than what is possible today.  . . .

OLEDs have the potential to deliver dramatically improved levels of efficiency and environmental performance when compared to traditional products.

GE researchers provided the organic electronics technology and were responsible for developing the roll-to-roll processes, while ECD provided its unique roll-to-roll equipment-building expertise to build the machine that manufactures the OLED devices.

When commercialized this technology will make possible low cost high, efficieny lighting. Lighting currently comsumes about 22% of the total electricity generated in the U.S. and about 25% of the average homes electric bill.

Thanks to Tyler at Clean Break for the tip.

Brighter LED Lights Could Replace Household Light Bulbs Within Three Years

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), already used in electrical equipment such as computers and mobile phones, are several times more energy efficient than standard light-bulbs. However, because of their structure and material, much of the light in standard LEDs becomes trapped, reducing the brightness of the light and making them unsuitable as the main lighting source in the home.

Now researchers at the University of Glasgow believe that, by making microscopic holes on the surface of the LEDs, they have found a way of introducing a new generation of LEDs into households that are brighter and use even less power than standard energy efficient light-bulbs.  . . . more

LED Lights Reduce Energy Consumption 48% in Cree Headquarters

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a manufacturer of LED solid-state lighting components, released the results of the first phase of the conversion of its Durham headquarters to LED lighting, which has resulted in the use of 48% less energy than the lights they replaced and plans to convert all lighting at the headquarters and manufacturing facility to LED lighting. The parking lots, entryways, lobby and conference rooms at Cree’s headquarters building are now 100-percent lit by energy-efficient, environmentally friendly XLamp(R) LEDs.That means replacing everything from high-pressure sodium parking-lot lights to the fluorescent tubes in offices and hallways to the spotlights on the flagpole out front.

“Conventional wisdom is that LED lighting is years away from widespread adoption. The truth, however, is that the performance of Cree’s LED technology enables real LED lighting solutions today,” said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. “The conversion of Cree’s site demonstrates that the LED Lighting Revolution is well underway and will illustrate the benefits in energy savings, maintenance costs and environmental impacts.”

The new LED lights use 48% less energy than the incandescent, fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lights they replaced. Cree began the process in October 2007 and will continue until it replaces the tens of thousands of bulbs and tubes that light the campus, inside and out.

Cree claims that the combination of the energy savings, reduced maintenance and disposal costs and the environmental savings demonstrate that LED lighting is now a real alternative to traditional lighting solutions.

Group IV Semiconductor Accelerates Development Of Energy-Efficient Solid State Lighting

News release -- Group IV Semiconductor, Inc., a developer of energy efficient, solid-state lighting technology, on August 1 announced that it received a substantial new round of investment led by Garage Technology Ventures Canada with Applied Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary of Applied Materials Inc., and with existing investors including Khosla Ventures and BDC Venture Capital. These investments will further expand Group IV's aggressive program to use its revolutionary silicon-based nanofilm technology to dramatically reduce the cost of solid-state lighting and enable its widespread global adoption.

"The race is on to create energy-efficient lighting alternatives as awareness grows of the enormous waste of energy caused by conventional technologies," said Stephen Naor, CEO of Group IV. "Our vision is to create silicon-based light engines - many times more efficient than conventional bulbs and much more economical than today's LED alternatives - to provide the world with a brighter, more sustainable future. We are delighted that Garage Canada, Applied Ventures and our existing investors share this vision and recognize this unique opportunity to transform a $12 billion market."

Group IV will also collaborate with Applied Materials to develop a low cost manufacturing process that will enable Group IV to accelerate its technology towards product commercialization and production.

Group IV's solid-state light engines use a single-chip, AC-powered, silicon-based process that can deliver dramatic cost savings relative to conventional LED technologies. Since production cost is generally considered to be the last remaining hurdle for mass adoption of solid-state lighting, Group IV projects that its unique materials system will provide a crucial competitive advantage in creating high efficiency, long-life lighting products that outperform incandescent, compact fluorescent and fluorescent lighting.

CFL's Come Out on Top

Popular Mechanics has an article on Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs on their website that reaches the following conclusions based on measurements of color temperature, brightness and wattage; and observations by three members of their staff and a lighting expert:

Even though the incandescent bulb measured slightly brighter than the equivalent CFLs, our subjects didn’t see any dramatic difference in brightness. And here was the real shocker: When it came to the overall quality of the light, all the CFLs scored higher than our incandescent control bulb. In other words, the new fluorescent bulbs aren’t just better for both your wallet and the environment, they produce better light.

All CFLs used about 70 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs. The average U.S. household has 45 light bulbs — replacing that number of 75-watt incandescent bulbs with CFLs would save $180 per year. 

In a related item lighting manufacturer TCP is increasing production of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) by 23 percent to 800,000 per day in order to meet increasing consumer demand, this capacity would probably be increased to 1 million lamps per day by the end if the year. TCP makes 70 percent of the CFLs on the market today through name brand, private label and other lighting manufacturers (OLMs), including The Home Depot. (courtesy Inside Greentech)

It was not such a shocker to me that quality of light was so good.  I have replaced about half of the lights in my home with CFL's and have seen no degradation in quality in all but one light, which was very obviously of the wrong color and have noticed a significant decrease in my electric bill.  Despite all your comments on their mercury content on my last post on the subject, my conclusion is, that the bulbs should be disposed of properly, but the mercury content of these bulbs is much less then that of other items around the home.

The quantity of bulbs being manufactured is much larger than I expected--they must have a wordwide market, but still that is a lot of bulbs.

The End of the Incandescent Light Bulb?

In yet another story on the wastes of the incandescent light bulb, The Christian Science Monitor reported:

Thanks to global warming, the ban-the-bulb movement is gaining strength. Australian officials and European lighting manufacturers have announced phase-outs of the energy-draining bulb. A California legislator has proposed a ban. Now, in a move that could speed the move away from the 128-year-old invention, some of the world's largest bulbmakers have joined environmental groups and the California Energy Commission in talks that could lead to a phase-out in the U.S. within a decade, sources say. ...

Some of the recent actions are:

• On Monday in Paris, the European Lamp Companies Federation, a trade group of lighting manufacturers in the European Union, unveiled a pact to phase out incandescent bulbs, without specifying a deadline.
• Last week, Australians officials announced a phase-out of incandescents bulbs by 2009.
• In California, state lawmaker Lloyd Levine in January introduced a bill that would ban the sale of incandescent bulbs statewide by 2012. ...

New Incandescent Light from GE

GE Announces Advancement in Incandescent Technology; New High-Efficiency Lamps Targeted for Market by 2010
GE press release, February 23, 2007

GE Consumer & Industrial’s Lighting division, ... announced advancements to the light bulb ...that potentially will elevate the energy efficiency of this 125-year-old technology to levels comparable to compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), delivering significant environmental benefits. Over the next several years, these advancements will lead to the introduction of high-efficiency incandescent lamps that provide the same high light quality, brightness and color as current incandescent lamps while saving energy and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The new high efficiency incandescent (HEI™) lamp, which incorporates innovative new materials ... would replace traditional 40- to 100-Watt household incandescent light bulbs, the most popular lamp type used by consumers today. ... The target for these bulbs at initial production is to be nearly twice as efficient, at 30 lumens-per-Watt, as current incandescent bulbs. Ultimately the high efficiency lamp (HEI) technology is expected to be about four times as efficient as current incandescent bulbs and comparable to CFL bulbs. Adoption of new technology could lead to greenhouse gas emission reductions of up to 40 million tons of CO2 in the U.S. and up to 50 million tons in the EU if the entire installed base of traditional incandescent bulbs was replaced with HEI lamps.

Kevin Nolan, Vice President of Technology for GE Consumer & Industrial, said: "In addition to offering significant energy savings comparable to CFLs, the 21^st century version of Edison’s bulb provides all the desirable benefits including light quality and instant-on convenience as incandescent lamps currently provide at a price that will be less than CFLs." ...

Group IV Semiconductor Solid State Lighting

Group IV Semiconductor, Inc., Ottawa, CA, has announced a three-year, $9.1 million initiative aimed at developing solid state lighting products made of silicon that use 90 per cent less energy than a traditional incandescent light bulb and last up to 50 times longer.The goal of Group IV's silicon-based technology is to dramatically reduce the cost of solid-state lighting—overcoming the critical price barrier and enabling widespread adoption.

While compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) have caught on lately with their promise of energy savings, they’re still only about 20 to 25 percent efficient. Lamps that use solid-state lighting (SSL) technology, by comparison, can achieve efficiency levels as high as 80 percent.

The global lighting market is worth about $12-billion, Group IV estimates. The company says about 20 per cent of the world's electricity demand is for lighting through light bulbs.

Solar Products for Your Leisure

The Solar Shower and the Solar Grill are two items that you can use in your backyard that were featured on the American Investor Spot, a new blog.

The solar shower is meant for a quick cleanup before you go in the house. Just pop right under it and adjust the temp to your liking. Your garden hose is connected to it to provide the water, and the sun is used to warm up your water (if you want warm water). The Solar Shower can reach temperatures as high as 130F in about 1 or 2 hours in sunny weather. It can also store 5.5 gallons of water.

The Solar Grill from Tammock Trading in Switzerland can barbecue everything you barbecue on a regular grill, except instead of using charcoal, lighter fluid, propane or fire, there is a flexible mirror and the sun to cook your food. Just place your food on the grill and the mirror will focus the sun’s beams on the barbeque cup heating it up and cooking your food. No more grill brushes, coal ashes or burned eyebrows to worry about.

Wal-Mart's Bright Idea

Walmart has staarted a campaign to sell one compact flourescent light (CFL) bulb to each of it's 100 million regular customers in the U.S. They are the most prominent part of a nationwide educational program called Change a Light, Change the World. It’s a cooperative effort between Wal-Mart, SAM’S CLUB, other American businesses and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program.

Changing the five most frequently used light bulbs in your home to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) could save you $80 a year in energy costs, and help lower the air emissions from your local electric utility.