City Pursues Green Tech with LED Lighting

February 14, 2007 – Vol.11 No.47

CITY PURSUES GREEN TECH WITH LED LIGHTING.

Here’s a look into the green-tinted crystal ball. The green tech, green energy revolution is now in its early stages. A full tilt, green tech economic boom will begin when the nation’s focus is off Iraq, perhaps with the next US President.

States and communities in the US will jump onto the green tech bandwagon as they did with computer and dot com booms as a way to build economies and create jobs . Tax incentives, financial assistance, inexpensive property will be offered to attract new companies to town. The governments of California, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and others, are already helping to build green-tech industries.

Now perhaps the first US city to assist green tech is Raleigh, North Carolina. And it’s starting where most great industries start: In a garage, a municipal parking garage, that is.

So impressed with energy savings of 40 percent with a fleet of low bay LED light fixtures on one floor of a city-owned parking garage, that the City of Raleigh has decided it would become the first “LED City” in the nation.

The initiative from Raleigh is designed to create a living laboratory for LED lighting technologies to deliver the economic, environmental and usage benefits of LED lighting to the city’s more than 350,000 residents. The city plans to deploy more LED parking garage lighting, parking lot lighting, street lights, architectural and accent lighting, portable lighting and pedestrian and walkway lighting over the next 18 months.

The light fixtures used in the parking garage were provided by Lighting Science Group. The low-bay fixtures incorporated LED components from Cree, based in nearby Durham, North Carolina.

Aside from the low-bay garage fixtures, Lighting Science Group claims to be the first company to market a high-output dimmable, Edison-base white-LED light bulb. The company has also just announced that it has partnered with Callenberg Engineering to develop marine qualified LED lights; products that can withstand the often harsh and corrosive environment of the oceans.

The marine sector, by the way, is one that is continuously looking for tough, but energy efficient new technologies. Which city will take on this specialized sector of green tech in which to create jobs and opportunities while trying to save the planet? Visit Cree at http://www.cree.com/ Lighting Science Group at http://www.lsgc.com/