DOE Announces Winners in Next Generation Luminaires Design Competition

This year, 42 commercial LED lighting products were recognized for excellence

Winners of the third annual Next Generation Luminaires (NGL) awards were announced recently at the Strategies in Light Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the International Association of Lighting Designers, the competition was launched in 2008 to promote excellence in the design of energy-efficient LED luminaires for general illumination in commercial lighting applications. Solid-state lighting (SSL) has the potential to save Americans $15 billion a year in energy costs by 2030. Advancing SSL is a part of the administration's efforts to save Americans money by conserving energy and increasing American leadership in energy-efficient building technologies.

A panel of 12 judges from the architectural lighting design community evaluated the NGL entries based on performance, appearance, construction, and submitted photometric data. The best-in-class winners came from four different manufacturers and covered four different areas of lighting:

• The Lighting Quotient, Inc. (West Haven, Conn.) Awarded best-in-class for its Linear Concealed LED Luminaire cove lighting fixture
• Philips Color Kinetics (Burlington, Mass.) Awarded best-in-class for its eW Burst Powercore facade lighting fixture
• Koncept Technologies, Inc. (Monterey Park, Calif.) Awarded best-in-class for its Equo LED Desk Lamp task lighting fixture
• USAI (New Windsor, N.Y.) Awarded best-in-class for its NanoLED recessed accent lighting fixture

This year, 42 commercial LED lighting products were recognized for excellence. Out of 138 entries from 61 companies, 33 were recognized as winners, in addition to the four that were chosen as best in class. An additional five products were deemed notable, a new category created for those NGL entries that might not yet be considered specifiable but nevertheless have at least one outstanding characteristic deserving of recognition.

Winners in the recognized category represented a wide range of manufacturers and applications, such as recessed accent lighting, wall washing, industrial lighting, recessed downlighting, decorative pendant and wall lighting, in-grade lighting, street and area lighting, and general illumination. More information on all the winning entries is available at the Next Generation Luminaires website.

Design competitions are a key part of DOE's national strategy to accelerate SSL technology advances from laboratory to marketplace. DOE provides federal leadership and technical support for a wide range of market introduction activities, including technology procurement and demonstrations, commercial product testing, buyer/user guidance, and standards development. For more information about the DOE Solid-State Lighting Portfolio, visit EERE's Solid-State Lighting website.