LEDs Poised to Outshine All Others in $4.4B Lighting Market

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:11:59 +0000

LAS VEGAS, NV — Dutch giant Royal Philips Electronics took the wraps off its 12-watt EnduraLED light bulb last week at the Lightfair International tradeshow and heralded the latest addition to its EnduraLED line as the “industry’s first” light emitting diodes replacement for the commonly used 60-watt incandescent light bulb, bringing a new measure of energy efficiency to everyday lighting applications at work and in the home.

Osram Sylvania, a subsidiary of Geman powerhouse Siemens AG, countered the following day with its alternative. It introduced attendees at the tradeshow in Las Vegas to the dimmable, mercury-free Sylvania ULTRA LED A-line 12-watt bulb, which its maker calls “the brightest LED replacement” for the traditional 60-watt bulb.

Taiwan-based GlacialTech Inc., a diversified manufacturing firm specializing in cooling, power and lighting, debuted LED products in announcements bracketing Taiwan’s International Lighting Show in March and the Lightfair expo. GlacialTech’s new offerings include a 19-watt portable LED outdoor floodlight and low-power T8 LED tubes.

With a U.S. mandate for more energy efficient lighting taking effect in 2012 and more businesses looking for ways to cut electricity costs, LEDs represent a burgeoning market for the lighting industry — and the rivalry is heating up among companies that want to seize the lion’s share of the sizable spoils.

A new study from Pike Research forecasts that LEDs will account for almost half of a $4.4 billion market for lamps in the commercial, industrial and outdoor stationary sectors by 2020.

Almost 18 percent of global electricity use goes toward lighting, and lighting in the U.S. consumes a fifth of the amount at an annual cost of more than $40 billion. With their ability to produce the same amount of light as traditional bulbs while consuming less energy and lasting far longer, LEDs represent a strong opportunity to cut expenses and reduce electricity use.

Typically, the LED replacements for traditional bulbs are described by their manufacturers as delivering 80 percent energy savings and lasting 25,000 hours, which can be 12 to 25 times longer than the bulbs they are replacing, depending on wattage and the company doing the talking.

Widely used for traffic signals and exit signs, LEDs have yet to break through the cost barrier, which has been the biggest obstacle to market penetration. But that’s expected to change.

Prospective price tags have been reported in the range of $60 for LED retrofits for incandescent 60-watt bulbs and $40 to $50 for LEDs that replace 40-watt bulbs. However, some companies are saying they can beat those prices, at least one already is, and all the firms are jockeying to be the best, brightest and “first” in a number of descriptive categories.

View our line of indoor LED light bulbs

Spotlighting the Green Benefits of LEDs

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:05:11 +0000

The capability to provide artificial sunlight has dramatically expanded the boundaries of time and space, adding hours to the day when we may see and illuminating where sunlight was unable to penetrate. Since the first humans carried a torch to provide light, heat has been a by-product of producing light.

Traditional electric lights continue to give off more heat than light. An incandescent light bulb uses a paltry 10 percent of its energy to create light. Fluorescent lighting — which has been the green standard in energy efficiency — still wastes nearly half of the electricity it consumes in generating heat. All of this lost energy is significant considering that lighting devours more than a quarter of a typical commercial building’s electricity, as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

LED, or light emitting diode, fixtures, in comparison, are twice as efficient as fluorescents at converting electricity to light and hence generate very little heat. In addition to improved energy efficiency, LED fixtures are nearly maintenance free and provide high quality of light. They are also dimmable, contain no mercury and tolerate frequent on/off switching without degrading their lifespan.

LED Case Studies

Since UCSF Medical Center replaced some of its surgical lighting with LED fixtures, doctors and nurses no longer complain about the heat from the light fixtures when performing surgical procedures.

“Previously we had to chill the OR [operating room] to offset the heat generated by the old fixtures,” UCSF Project Manager John Lewis explained. “The new LED lights do not radiate heat and the OR medical staff is comfortable at standard OR temperatures.”

Quality of light is an important issue to adoption of any new lighting technology. Fluorescents were unable to replicate the incandescent bulb’s soft and pleasing glow and disappointed both professional lighting designers and the cube dwellers who toiled under their unnatural glare. LEDs hark back to a more basic light source, the sun. The spectrum and color rendition come closest yet to natural daylight.

An LED is a semiconductor that creates light by releasing energy from electrons. It is frequently referred to as “solid state” or “digital” lighting. Because LED fixtures generate light over an area using thousands of tiny light sources, the fixtures also provide a clear, shadow-free light field that is ideal for task work, whether an accountant, engineer or surgeon.

“The most important criteria for our application is the quality of light. After an early test, we eliminated fluorescent fixtures since fluorescents render colors poorly,” Lewis said. “The medical team found the quality of light provided by the new LED lighting was superior to the existing incandescent lighting.”

While quality of light is important, CFOs, facilities managers and contractors also want to understand the financial benefits of LED fixtures. LED lighting providers emphasize the lower total cost of ownership offered by LED lighting to justify the higher upfront investment.

Much of the savings stems from the improved energy efficiency of LED lighting; up to 70 percent less energy is required to produce light. An added benefit is reducing heat generated, which saves on air conditioning and is noticeable in an operating room, office or data center.

Adding to the cost benefits, LED manufacturers promise an exceptionally long life of 10, 15 or more years. Shifting from disposable to durable lighting eliminates the maintenance costs such as tube and ballast replacement that are standard with fluorescents. Adding to replacement costs is proper disposal of the mercury-based fluorescent tubes.

The Pittsburgh International Airport found the ROI compelling. The airport is installing more than a thousand LED fixtures to cover over a million square feet in its garage (pictured below) and passenger loading and unloading area. The project is believed to be largest single installation of LEDs to date.

“Not only does the LED technology reduce our energy costs, it also reduces maintenance,” said JoAnn Jenny, director of communications for Allegheny County Airport Authority.

To further improve ROI, there may be grants and incentives available. Pittsburgh International Airport is taking advantage of a state grant to subsidize installation of LED lighting. With the grant, the pay-back period is cut by half.

Barriers to Adoption

Although LED fixtures offer compelling advantages, there are barriers to adoption. Kim Parsley, a principal for IA Interior Architects, which focuses on sustainable commercial building design, commented, “We are still recommending T5 fluorescents for office and retail spaces. We are cautious about the claims of LED lighting providers and want more case studies. The upfront costs are also off-putting to clients.”

To overcome these early adopter risks, Pittsburgh International Airport first completed a small pilot and then negotiated guarantees from its vendor that the LED fixtures would achieve the advertised light output, efficiency and life expectancy.

LEDs are starting to light standard commercial installations such as offices and retail. Last year, Unilever’s new 400,000-square-foot headquarters (pictured above) used LEDs as primary electric light source. Starbucks also announced last year its plan to retrofit all of its 8,000 company owned stores with LED fixtures and is on-track to roll-out by the end of this year.

Costs are expected to decline with continued improvement in performance. Sandia National Laboratories completed a LED study in 2001 [PDF] to develop a price / performance model. In that taper, Drennen, Haitz and Tsao described LED improvements over the previous thirty years, “In a Moore’s-law-like fashion, [light] per unit has been increasing 30x per decade … Similarly, the cost per unit … has been decreasing 10x per decade.” Improvements in this decade have been consistent with the model.

Implementation Considerations

The most favorable ROIs are for those applications where the lighting is expensive to operate:

Energy intensive — Where there is long hours of operation, inefficient technology such as incandescent, halides, or halogens. These applications include garages, hospitals, retail, airports and other transportation hubs, decorative lighting, signage, elevator and restaurants.
Costly maintenance — Frequent replacement required. Expensive to replace parts when using traditional fixtures. Examples are signage or outdoor lights.

Even when the ROI satisfies the company’s hurdle rates, other complications may limit the realization of benefits. Since many commercial buildings are leased, if the installation pay-back period is longer than the lease or the tenant does not pay for electricity used, then the tenant has no incentive to make the investment. In these types of scenarios, the tenant and landlord need to negotiate to determine an equitable way to share the costs and benefits of an LED installation.

Next Page: Key considerations when selecting LED providers.

When selecting LED providers, the Department of Energy (DOE) has established a certification program to test and compare various LED products. Since technology advances continue, DOE and other industry groups should be checked periodically for latest insights.

No matter the lighting technology selected, the first step is to reduce the lighting required and then find the most efficient technology for the remainder. Incorporating day lighting reduces the need for artificial lights. Presence detectors and automatic dimming to maintain correct level of light will eliminate waste.

LEDs Ready for Expansion

The newest use for LEDs, developed by NASA, is to provide light to grow plants for oxygen and food in space. The research from this space application has been transferred to medical uses in the treatment of cancers (see picture, right).

The nonprofit Light Up the World Foundation is developing and distributing solar LED lighting to poor people in remote areas who still rely on kerosene lamps and wood fires. This old style lighting creates toxic emissions that debilitate the health of those exposed; especially vulnerable are the young and chronically ill. The new LED light is appreciated for its bright illumination as well as its clean and frugal operation.

The quest to provide artificial light has always been about discovering more efficient and safer lighting technology. LED lighting is the next step in that evolution. LEDs have already expanded from niche lighting to standard commercial applications in the last few years. And LED technology is helping to open new frontiers because of its low energy requirements and ability to mimic sunlight.

View out line on LED Lighiting Products here.

Everlight LED technology lights up Burger King restaurants

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:50:30 +0000

A Burger King restaurant in Germany has adopted energy-efficient LED lighting from Everlight Electronics, for use in parking lots and for indoor applications.

Burger King has equipped its first energy-efficient restaurant, opened in early June in Waghäusel, Germany, with LED lighting from Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. [TSE:2393].

LED lights in Burger King parking lot

The new eco-friendly restaurant design adopted by Burger King utilizes state-of the-art technologies, while renewable energy provides one-third of the restaurant’s energy consumption.

Lighting plays a key role; long-lasting interior and exterior LED bulbs save more than 55 percent of energy consumption annually compared to traditional lighting methods.

SL-Dolphin lighting pattern

Outdoor

The parking area is illuminated by six 60W SL-Dolphin street lights in neutral white with Phoenix lighting pattern (see chart) featuring a luminous flux of ca. 6000 lm and a color temperature of 5000 K. The asymmetric wide-view angle ensures high uniformity at pole heights of 6-8m and therefore is ideally suited for parking and roadway applications, says Everlight.

Existing Everlight SL-Dolphin lights are now being shipped with a patented electronic ballast—developed and produced—in Germany that has various dimming options, a life span up to eight times compared to other LED street light solutions or conventional street lights, a high-temperature protection mechanism and an efficiency of 93 percent.

Interior lamps use Everlight’s A-Lamp

Indoor

The restaurant’s guest area is equipped with red interior lights in Italian design using Everlight’s A-Lamp replacement LED lamp as the light source. This implementation, realized by German company E2, features a high uniformity of illumination due to the A-Lamp’s glare-free light distribution.

The eight LEDs cannot be seen from the outside, resulting in a pleasant lighting effect resembling that of a frosted light bulb. The A-Lamp’s power consumption of 7.5 W is more than 50 percent less than the 18W of an energy-saving lamp with a comparable luminance.

Why Choose LED Lighting Lighting?

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:18:06 +0000

We carry only top of the line LED Borealis LED products. They consume up to 90% less energy than traditional incandescent lighting and provide at least 50,000 hours of operation. Using industry leading polymers, Borealis lamps are virtually unbreakable and shock resistant, resulting in significant reduction in energy consumption and maintenance and recycling costs.

Borealis LED products protect us and our surroundings by eliminating the damaging UV and IR radiation associated with traditional lighting. There is no warm-up time, with instant-on full light output, no flickering and constant, stable color. Designed with dimming capabilities and able to fit into standard fixtures, Borealis has simplified the migration to LED lighting.

Additional Reasons:

1. ENERGY EFFICIENCY: LEDs consume 75 to 90% less energy than standard incandescent light bulbs, saving you money on your power bill month after month.

2. LONG LIFE: The typical life of an LED is 100,000 hours or nearly 11 ½ years of continuous use, making LED ideal for installation in locations that are difficult to access.

3. RELIABILITY: An LED is encased in virtually unbreakable high strength resin. There is no glass or filament to break making LED perfect for environments where temperature extremes, shock and vibration occur.

4. ECONOMIC: Despite their initial price, the use of LED lighting can offer significant savings in the long term, particularly in terms of reduced energy and maintenance costs. When compared to standard incandescent lamps, LEDs will pay for themselves many times over in energy savings alone.

5. SAFETY AND SECURITY: LEDs produce little or no heat and operate at low voltages making them a far safer source of light. No glass to break and no hot filaments.

View Our line of LED Lighting Products here:

Millennium Visual Systems Reaches Distribution Agreement with PolyBrite International, Inc.

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:31:45 +0000

Leading Distributor Offering PolyBrite’s Borealis® LED Lamps
Chestnut Ridge, NY. – Tuesday, June 29, 2010 – Millennium Visual Systems today announced it has signed a distribution agreement with PolyBrite International, Inc., manufacturer of Borealis® LED Lamps and Lighting Systems. Millennium is adding the new line of Borealis products to their existing portfolio of LED lighting technology solutions. The company is an established national supplier of both indoor and outdoor LED lighting solutions.

Millennium will offer the new Borealis® line of LED lamps including patented A19, B10, PAR38, R20, MR16, T8, Panel and Street Lights, High and Low Bay lighting in a variety of color temperatures. The Borealis brand utilizes PolyBrite’s proprietary polymer technology, and achieves maximum brightness, unparalleled performance, and unrivaled light quality. The Borealis line is designed with dimming capabilities and fit into standard fixtures.

Borealis® LED products consume up to 90% less energy than traditional lighting with no radiant heat or Ultraviolet Rays (UV). Providing at least 50,000 hours of operation, Borealis lamps are virtually unbreakable and shock resistant resulting is a significant reduction on energy consumption, maintenance and recycling cost without compromising the quality of light and the environment.

“Our customers will now have the option of using a safe lighting alternative to environmentally taxing Incandescent and Fluorescent lighting.” said Dave Goldberg, Chief Operating Officer of Millennium Visual Systems. “Our agreement with PolyBrite follows our company’s ongoing commitment to earth conscious practices.” Mr. Goldberg further noted that “At Millennium we are deeply committed to providing earth friendly, energy efficient products to promote living a “green” lifestyle.”

“PolyBrite is delighted to appoint Millennium as a stocking distributor for Borealis® LED products. Our agreement strengthens our distribution channels within the lighting industry,” said Carl Scianna, President and CEO for PolyBrite International. “Millennium will stock Borealis products in-house, and provide customers with their highly regarded customer service when purchasing PolyBrite’s Borealis LED products.”

About Millennium Visual Systems: Headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, NJ with business operations in Chestnut Ridge, NY, Millennium Visual Systems designs, produces, sells, and services electronic signs, programmable displays, LED bulbs and emergency lighting that is widely used in government, schools, hospitals, offices, factories, restaurants and retail businesses. Millennium is nationally known for their reputation of delivering quality, reliable products, supported by a high level of professionalism to ensure customer satisfaction. For more information on Millennium’s line of LED products call (845) 356-4100 or visit at www.millenniumvisuals.com, Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin.

About PolyBrite International: PolyBrite International, Inc. has established itself as an innovative global LED lighting technology company since 1995. PolyBrite designs, develops and maintains complete control in manufacturing solid-state lighting products, creating LED lamps, Street Lighting, Panel and Tube Lighting and complete Signage lighting systems under its Borealis® Lighting brand. The Borealis brand of products utilizes PolyBrite’s proprietary polymer technology and patent pending designs, bringing the energy efficiency, environmental sustainability and economic advantages of LED technology to the marketplace. More information on PolyBrite’s Borealis brand of products is available on the Internet at www.polybrite.com or www.borealislighting.com or by calling 1-800-320-3801.

# # #

“Borealis” is either a registered trademark or trademark of PolyBrite International, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries.

PolyBrite International, Inc. Reaches Distribution Agreement with Millennium Visual Systems

admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:28:29 +0000

Leading Distributor Offering PolyBrite’s Borealis® LED Lamps
Naperville, IL. – Tuesday, June 29, 2010 – PolyBrite International, Inc., manufacturer of Borealis® LED Lamps and Lighting Systems today announced it has signed a distribution agreement with Millennium Visual Systems. Millennium is adding the new line of Borealis products to their existing portfolio of LED lighting technology solutions. The company is an established national supplier of both indoor and outdoor LED lighting solutions.

# # #

For more information contact:
Tula Kareotes, Marketing Coordinator
PolyBrite International
630-717-6700
tula@polybrite.com
www.polybrite.com

Megan Sheehan, Creative Director
Millennium Visual Systems
845-356-4100
ms@millenniumvisuals.com
www.millenniumvisuals.com

LED Electronic sign to appear in Englewood Cliffs

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:39:40 +0000

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS — Elected officials have green lit a project that would install an LED sign in the community to inform residents about emergencies and other announcements.

However, the proposed sign would violate Borough ordinances, according to Mayor Joseph Parisi, Jr.

The sign is 3 feet, 10 inches high by 7 feet, 10 inches wide, according to Dave Goldberg of Millennium Visual Systems.

Parisi fears that if the ordinances were changed, local businesses would want to put large signs of their own.

“I would vehemently ask the council not to change the sign ordinance because then every commercial property and everyone else can turn around and say, ‘I want one!’” he said. “The other option is you go in front of the Board of Adjustment and ask for a variance.”

Councilwoman Carroll McMorrow, a supporter of the sign, said she is willing to do what it takes to get the sign up, and stressed to the council that they should not pass up on the opportunity.

“I just think it’s such a wonderful idea in today’s time to be given an opportunity to get something like this to benefit the residents,” she said. “It’s transparency, it’s openness in government and it’s getting the word out there faster.”

The mayor disagreed.

“To me, it’s a waste of our money, a waste of our resources and it takes the beauty away from Englewood Cliffs,” Parisi said.

The majority of the sign’s $19,000 price tag comes from two grants awarded by Mid-Bergen Regional Health Commission for $14,000.

McMorrow said LG Electronics is willing to sponsor the remaining $5,000 for the purchase.

The deadline to accept and use the grant money is the end of July.

Officials were able to test a sign out. A demonstration display was lent to the Borough and temporarily displayed in front of the Ambulance Corps building on Hudson Terrace.

However, finding a permanent location may be a problem.

“We don’t have a downtown central location like these other towns do,” said Councilman Ilan Plawker. “We talked about electronic signs over the years many, many times and each time we come to the same decision. We don’t have one location that lends itself to where a majority of people in town could see it.”

Plawker suggested using the grant money to improve communication in the Borough in a different way – creating and updating the Borough website.

“It seems to me that a website developer and maintaining that website for Englewood Cliffs would serve the community a lot better than a sign on Hudson Terrace,” Plawker said. “The fact of the matter is the town sorely needs a website reaching out to the whole community.”

The government is working with Millennium Visual Systems, an LED electronic sign and programmable display company based in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y.

Mid-Bergen contacted McMorrow, the Board of Health liaison, a couple of months ago to inform her that Englewood Cliffs is one of five municipalities to receive a $12,000 grant. She was informed of the additional $2,000 at a later date.

“I was very excited to hear that because there are only certain communities chosen, and Englewood Cliffs was one of them,” McMorrow said. “If we do not use that money, we will lose that money.”

View our Outdoor Programmable Sign Gallery

Article From NorthJersey.com

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

BY TARA DRIGGS

Northern Valley Suburbanite

STAFF WRITER

DOE recommends new approach to LED luminaire lifetime ratings

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:43:05 +0000

Recognizing that catastrophic failure of electronics in an LED luminaire is a concern, the DOE recommends a new way to account for such failures in addition to the widely used L and B specifications.

LED luminaires are extremely complex relative to legacy lighting technologies and the industry has struggled with an accurate way to rate the lifetime of such solid-state-lighting (SSL) products. The DOE has published a new recommendation for testing and reporting LED luminaire lifetime that accounts both for failure attributable to declining light output or lumen maintenance, and to catastrophic failure of the luminaire.

The new “LED Luminaire Lifetime: Recommendations for Testing and Reporting” guide recommends that luminaire makers specify an F rating for catastrophic failures – for example F10 at 30,000 hours would imply that 10% of the luminaires in a given population would fail catastrophically by 30,000 hours of usage.

DOE Lighting Program Manager Jim Brodrick mentioned the report in his weekly Postings newsletter writing, “Longevity is considered one of SSL’s major advantages over traditional lighting technologies, and manufacturers are quite naturally touting it as a big selling point. But the topic is extremely complicated.” Indeed both LED manufacturers and luminaire makers need a way to accurately define lifetime. Moreover, buyers need accurate information to justify SSL purchases and calculate accurate payback windows.

The new recommendation builds on the L and B ratings that originated with Philips Lumileds. First lumen maintenance was defined with a figure such as L70 at 50,000 hours implying that an SSL product would decline to 70% of its initial light output after 50,000 hours of usage – essentially reaching the end of its useful life. The B figure was added such that L70/B50 at 50,000 hours implies that 50% of a population of lights reach the L70 point in 50,000 hours.

The L and B specifications were first targeted at lumen maintenance at the LED component level. LED brightness can decline based on age, drive current, and operating temperature. Indeed, LED makers such as Philips provide L and B specifications relative to current and temperature.

Shortest of L/B and F specifications is figure of merit for lifetime rating

Luminaire makers must provide fixture level specifications based on the entire system. The L and B luminaire ratings must account for lumen maintenance and for catastrophic failure of one or more individual LEDs. Luminaire designs based on arrays of LEDs can suffer individual LED failures without falling below an L70 spec.

L and B ratings at the luminaire level have not accounted for catastrophic failures. Such failures would not likely be due to LED failure but rather to failed drive electronics, failed solder joint or other problem. A simple component such as an electrolytic capacitor can cause a catastrophic failure.

The DOE recommendation actually identifies 12 reliability considerations that could contribute to a catastrophic failure lifetime rating including electrical connections, printed circuit boards, thermal elements, the drive electronics and more. The F rating should account for all of the considerations.

The DOE further recommends that luminaire makers choose the shortest life rating between L/B and F specifications as the one used in a luminaire lifetime rating. For example, if a luminaire L70/B50 point is 50,000 hours and the F10 point is 40,000 hours then the luminaire maker should report a lifetime of 40,000 hours.

The new report was developed by a working group under the guidance of the DOE SSL Quality Advocates program. The group was formed jointly by the DOE and the Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance. This work follows the earlier “Reporting LED Luminaire Product Performance” report that led to the Lighting Facts label.

Of course defining a way to specify lifetime still doesn’t solve the inexact science of determining actual numbers. As Brodrick noted in his newsletter, products rated for 50,000 hours can’t be actually tested in real time. And the fast-paced SSL industry will result in new components, drive electronics, and other changes long before a single product makes it through a six-year, 50,000-hour deployment. So luminaire and LED makers must extrapolate the lifetime ratings.

Langenegg municipality goes green with help of Ledon Lightin

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:32:30 +0000

Ledon supplies Langenegg with retrofit LED lamps at cost to help the municipality provide its citizens with the e5 Energy Box

The municipality of Langenegg won an EUR 8,000 prize in an Austria-wide competition called “Austria’s Climate Protection Municipality 2009.” The city will use the funds to provide its citizens with an e5 Energy Box that includes a CFL energy-saving lamp, a switchable plug, an ammeter, and a LEDON led retrofit lamp that Ledon supplied at cost to show support for the energy saving initiative.

“We are at the same time very happy and proud to provide our residents with this e5 Energy Box put together with the help of the prize money. Due to the innovative technology of Ledon LED lamps, it is particularly easy for everyone to contribute one’s share in reducing energy costs and increasing energy efficiency,“ says Georg Moosbrugger, mayor of Langenegg.

The Ledon LED lamp is a 6W replacement for a 40W incandescent lamp. It is 30% more efficient than a CFL and runs 85% more efficient than an incandescent light bulb. Moreover, the LED lamp has no warm up time, is dimmable, and contains no mercury allowing for easy recycling.

The e5 program is dedicated to sustainable energy across the state of Voralberg in Austria. There are 30 different municipalities that participate including Langenegg. Each municipality has its own e5 energy team, and the Langenegg team put together the e5 Energy Box that citizens can pick up for free at the town hall. The team also supplies citizens with information on minimizing energy usage.

The Climate Protection Municipality program is an annual competition sponsored jointly by the Verbund electrical utility, the Austrian Association of Municipalities, and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. The 2010 program is now underway.

Everlight, LG, and Amtran form LED packaging joint venture

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:31:37 +0000

A new packaging company will target the LED-backlit TV market, with operations based in JiangSu Province, China.

LED-packaging specialists Everlight Electronics has announced its intention to launch a new company focused on LEDs for TV backlights with partners LG Display and Amtran Technology. The joint venture will be capitalized with $30 million, will be based in WeJiang City, JiangSu Province, China, and plans to start mass production by year’s end.

The joint venture will enter the LED backlight market at a time of high demand. Just last week, analyst iSuppli reaffirmed its belief that a shortage of LEDs for TV applications would persist through this year. The firm projects shipment of large-sized LCD panels with LED backlights to reach 276.7 million this year with the number growing to 477.6 million units in 2011 and 817.9 million units by 2014.

Jointly, the three partners in the new venture have shared experience relative to all key aspects of LED-backlit LCD TV technologies. Taiwan-based Everlight has deep experience in LED packaging. Korea-based LG Display is one of the leading manufacturers of thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD panels for TVs, monitors, and notebook computers.

Amtran technology is a contract manufacturer of computer monitors and TVs based in Taipei, Taiwan. The company has a close partnership with Vizio and in fact owns a stake in the company that was the market leader for TVs in the US for 2009.

The companies believe that their shared experience will enable the yet-to-be-named venture to rapidly offer state-of-the art LEDs for the backlight market.