An article in Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer said GE Lighting Solutions, East Cleveland, Ohio, has put together a new bid for the city’s contract for LED lighting. The Plain Dealer article said Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson wants a lighting company to build a factory and research lab in Cleveland and create 350 jobs in exchange for the right to sell the city LEDs.
As reported on EM’s LiveWire in May, the city had awarded a controversial no-bid contract to Sunpu-Opto Semiconductor Ltd. to provide LED street lighting, but the Chinese company eventually backed out of that deal. GE Lighting opposed that contract from the start and has been campaigning to submit a new bid. LEDs are a major focus at GE Lighting, which is spending 66 percent of its R&D dollars on LED lighting.