Philips 10W LED is First Entrant in DOE L-Prize Competition
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Sept. 24 that the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L Prize) competition has received its first entrant, a product from Philips Electronics. Philips has developed, manufactured and will bring to market an LED replacement for the common 60W incandescent light bulb. Philips developed this product in response to DOE's industry-wide challenge, and was today recognized by DOE as the first company to submit an entry. DOE launched the L Prize initiative to spur development of high-quality, high-efficiency LED replacements for the common light bulb.
“The race is on,” said DOE Solid-State Lighting Program Manager Jim Brodrick. “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.”
“Philips is confident that the product submitted meets or exceeds all of the criteria for the L Prize. By being the first to enter this very tough competition, Philips has demonstrated its commitment once again to playing a leading global role in lighting innovation and energy conservation,” said Rudy Provoost, CEO of Philips Lighting.
Established through the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the L Prize offers substantial rewards for the first manufacturer to meet its very demanding requirements – ensuring that performance, quality, lifetime, cost and availability meet expectations for widespread adoption and mass manufacturing. In addition to the significant cash prize, the first manufacturer to fully meet the competition's requirements will also be in consideration for federal purchasing agreements, utility programs and other incentives.
A report in The New York Times said Philips expects to bring the cost of the bulb down to $20 to $25 over the long-term.
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.