Welcome to the LEDs Magazine News & Insights newsletter for Aug. 18, 2021. The first ever virtual Strategies in Light is a week away. We all wish that we could gather in person, but society faces at least one more concerted push to banish SARS-CoV-2. I can tell you, though, that co-chairs Bob Steele and Clifton Stanley Lemon have put together a brilliant program. Moreover, there will be video interviews, product demonstrations, and opportunities for attendees to interact directly with sponsors.
Of course, our Sapphire Awards program was also impacted by the fact that COVID-19 resulted in cancelled and postponed industry events. Still, we ultimately had a great set of Sapphire entries. We announced the finalists back in late June. We will announce the winners next Tuesday evening at the end of the first day of Strategies in Light. There will be a special Sapphire session that is free for all to attend. You do not need to pre-register. Please plan to join and virtually celebrate innovation in our LED and solid-state lighting sectors. And we will present the Design Excellence awards of recognition in conjunction with the Lighting Controls Association for the very first time.
As I typically remind you in the audience each time an issue deploys, you can now access the July/August issue on our digital magazine platform. And I often recommend a specific article or two you should read. I’ll say I think the latest issue was great cover to cover, and it was our largest folio in some time.
I will point out an article from a prior issue, both because it was very well done but also because I owe the IES (Illuminating Engineering Society) an apology over not being more accurate in our editing process. The published June article in question covers the new IES work on horticultural lighting in the form of a Recommended Practice document — IES RP-45-21 — that is under development. Unfortunately, we described the work as complete whereas Brian Liebel, director of standards and research at the IES, has since pointed out that the document is still under review. Sorry to the fine people that make the IES run. The article is still very valuable, and we look forward to the document being formally published in the near future.
And speaking of horticulture, our HortiCann Light + Tech Conference is coming up Sept. 28 and 29. We continue to add to the program. The breadth of the program will span the AgTech space. But as always, we will deliver evolving information on plant response to electromagnetic energy. And I wrote the prior sentence using those words because that energy may well lie outside the human visual spectrum, or light as we humans experience it. Charles Kirmuss of Blossom LLC will discuss the impact of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) energy on plants using data from a cannabis growing operation.
News has been light the last couple of weeks, although we have a couple of news stories awaiting clarification of some minor points before being posted. Stay tuned in the coming days. I will mention the news that the US Department of Energy (DOE) has made. Under the Biden administration, the DOE is reversing a number of actions taken under the prior leadership. The agency has said it is planning rulemaking that will soon enforce more stringent efficacy rules on decorative lamps. The policy should save significant energy and greatly reduce carbon emissions, but it remains controversial. Even lighting companies that are highly vested in LED technology would like to continue making incandescent decorative lamps.
In that same article, we also posted news about research grants recently awarded by the DOE focused on building efficiency. A number of those awards were for LED and/or SSL research. The awards totaled almost $83 million.
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) 208-9442, [email protected]