L Prize Competition Adds Nine New Partners

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it has added nine new partners agreeing to work cooperatively to promote the winners of the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize or L Prize competition. The following energy efficiency organizations and utilities each signed a Memorandum of Understanding with DOE: DTE Energy, Sierra Pacific Power (now doing business with Nevada Power as NV Energy), Eugene Water and Electric Board, Seattle City Light, Energy Trust of Oregon, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (covering nine states), NSTAR Electric, Commonwealth Edison Company, and Cape Light Compact. Sixteen partners from coast to coast are now on board to bring utility programs and other incentives for winning L Prize products.

"In just three months, the number of L Prize partners has more than doubled, bringing ready-made markets from California to Cape Cod for the rapid adoption of high-performance solid-state lighting products," stated Jim Brodrick, SSL Program Manager for DOE. "This increases the number of potential fast track customers to more than 100 million, and sends a strong signal to U.S. manufacturers of high quality solid-state lighting products that the L Prize winners will be welcomed in large American markets, from LA to Seattle to Chicago to Boston." DOE's goal is to drive quality and energy efficiency up while bringing the cost of this technology down, leading to broader acceptance in the market.

The L Prize competition challenges industry to develop replacement technologies for today's most widely used and inefficient products: 60W incandescent lamps and PAR 38 halogen lamps. DOE estimates that if every 60 watt wall socket converted from incandescent to the L Prize winners overnight, $2 billion in energy savings would return to consumers pockets.