LED lighting systems are seeing a lot of growth and more research to help expand on their use and efficiency.
According to Novus Light, the U.S. Department of Energy recently pledged $10 million for research, development and manufacturing of solid-state lighting in the country. This funding will go toward LED and organic LED development to bring the most efficient lighting products to residential and commercial applications.
Funding from the DOE will be allocated to three types of research: basic or applied research for product development, applied research for core technology and U.S. manufacturing. Product development refers to research to enhance commercially useful low voltage LED lighting as well as other SSL products and devices. Core technology focuses on improvements geared toward achieving standards for efficacy, costs and performance.
Projects from the SSL industry, academia and national labs will be eligible for DOE funding.
In addition to gaining support from the DOE, LEDs will have more of a presence in the lighting industry, Digitimes reported. In 2013, the proportion of LED chips that are used for lighting will grow from 20 to 25 percent of total LED chip usage. Average luminous efficacy will see improvements through the years – 77 lumens per watt in 2013 to 110 lumens per watt in 2017.
