Date Announced: 01 Jan 2011Original press release date: 13 November 2010Two British companies - Zeta Controls and Juice Technology - are to receive substantial government funding to help them develop new energy efficient lighting.The two companies will share nearly £900,000 through development contracts awarded by the Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The support will help the companies to become market leaders in the latest and most energy-efficient lighting, which will contribute to reduced energy consumption in our homes.The contract awards follow a competition run as part of the cross-government Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) scheme, which is championed by the Technology Strategy Board.Environment Minister Lord Henley said:"Through this investment, we are supporting and stimulating innovation that will help us to address the key challenges of reducing our energy usage and cutting carbon emissions. At the same time, we are helping to deliver long-term economic growth for the UK as developing these new products will enable the companies to take advantage of the growing worldwide demand for energy-efficient lighting." Mark Glover, the Head of SBRI, added:"We are giving these companies the opportunity to put Britain at the forefront of the global effort to produce innovative low-energy lighting products, thus creating jobs and boosting the British economy. At the end of the trials, we hope we'll see high-quality, compact, ultra-efficient lighting that everyone would be happy to use at home. Such lighting could transform Britain's homes and energy use." The winning companies were chosen from six who put forward detailed technical feasibility studies proposing concepts for new lighting products. These were subjected to a detailed technical assessment and the proposals from Zeta Controls and Juice Technology were considered the most promising. The funding will enable the companies to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstration units, which will then be subjected to a vigorous 6-month field trial.The companies will now develop their prototypes and produce 50 fully-functional, tested demonstration units. Both selected projects are based on Non-Directional Lighting Sources (bulb replacements) and are highly innovative. After the development phase the Technology Strategy Board will coordinate a six-month period of demonstration testing, from October 2011. Further details: The output from the development phase will be the production of 50 lighting units for field trials over a 6 month period, which will be coordinated by the Technology Strategy Board. These products should have full safety certification, environmental reliability studies and at least 3 months of life-test evaluation under accelerated conditions showing performance expected to achieve > 25,000 hours (L70).
Contact
Nick Sheppard, Media Relations Consultant, Technology Strategy Board Mobile: 07824 599644 Email: [email protected] Additional contact: Claire Cunningham, Media Relations Manager, Technology Strategy Board, Tel: 01793 442901 Mobile: 0755 411 5745
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