Welcome to the LEDs Magazine News & Insights newsletter for Sept. 9, 2020. Wow, the calendar turned to September and the news volume in the LED and solid-state lighting (SSL) sectors immediately notched upwards. Is it coincidence or a natural seasonal occurrence? I’ll reserve judgment. We wouldn’t normally see an uptick so soon after Labor Day and some of what we are reporting is simply not tied to proactive planning, although some is.
Lumileds, for example, chose to make a packaged LED announcement the Tuesday after Labor Day. The Luxeon 3030HE Plus Deep Dimming LED is a product designed for a niche, but lighting manufacturers that need the capabilities will love it. The company has developed a way to more tightly control forward voltage as LEDs are dimmed to very low light levels. The LEDs will maintain forward voltage at ±0.05V even at 1% of nominal drive current. The result will be uniform flux output from all LEDs in a fixture; linear-type fixtures that use many separate strings of LEDs can exhibit lack of uniformity in such situations.
We also have a story for you from Signify that was prompted by a long-term goal realized and not the pages of a calendar. The company has previously stated a mission to become carbon neutral and has made great progress. Specifically, Signify said this week that 100% of its own operations are using electrical energy from renewable sources. To become completely carbon neutral, the company must still move acquisitions such as Cooper Lighting toward carbon neutrality.
I certainly applaud Signify’s efforts. Still, I found other elements of the article almost more interesting. Our Mark Halper was able to ask CEO Eric Rondolat about how Signify will emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic given that many companies appear to be moving toward a post-pandemic world where employees still work at home rather than in large offices that represent the market for many luminaires. Rondolat acknowledged the potential difficulty, but noted that Signify was already moving to react to such an eventuality with a renewed focus on applications such as horticultural lighting, the Internet of Things, germicidal ultraviolet (UV-C) lighting, and more. I would further add that while office occupancy may decline, the industrial sector will hopefully grow post-pandemic as will other segments such as hospitality, transportation, and retail.
I further believe, as I have written repeatedly, that we will see a second wave of SSL deployment where quality of light is the specific focus. Indeed, this concept has lead us to develop the virtual learning event we have planned for Sept. 29–30 called “Renaissance of light quality: SSL industry swaps focus from efficiency to architecture.” Please register and join us for any or all of the sessions that will be delivered live over the course of the two days.
Our newsletter today is further bolstered by the inclusion of content from our September issue that just deployed. As I regularly remind, subscribers can get seamless access to new issues and archives using our digital magazine platform and peruse issues cover to cover. We also post the feature content in HTML form so you can easily locate it via search. We have some excellent articles for you. Given the flow of this column, I might recommend the opinion column from James Tu of Energy Focus that suggests the lighting industry prioritize lighting for health and wellbeing post-pandemic for success.
You will find many more stories of interest in the body of today’s newsletter. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.
- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, [email protected]