From the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs comes this news:
Six British companies have won support for carrying out technical feasibility studies in the first phase of a major initiative to develop more energy efficient lighting for our homes.
The £1.2m research fund, from the Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will help the companies to become market leaders in the best ultra energy-efficient lighting, which will contribute to reduced energy consumption in our homes.
The companies have been awarded up to £40,000 each to carry out work, over the next three months, to show the technical feasibility of their proposed concepts. The feasibility studies will then be assessed and the proposals with the most promising technologies will receive up to £450,000 to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstration units, which will then be subjected to a vigorous 6-month field trial …
The six British companies awarded the feasibility study contacts are: Cambridge Consultants Ltd, Juice Technology Ltd, Marl International Ltd, PhotonStar LED Ltd, Tridonic Atco (UK) Ltd and Zeta Controls Ltd.
The companies have until 9 September 2010 to submit their feasibility study reports and they will be notified of the decision regarding full development contracts in early October 2010.
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5 Comments
I find this surprising.
Low energy (and low voltage) lighting systems are already available – LED lighting which does not suffer from the problem of taking about half an hour to come to full brightness.
Also the amount of the funding involved doesn’t seem worth the effort. I haven’t looked at all the websites of the firms listed but for example PhotonStar LED Ltd appears to be marketing LED technnology lighting already – why are they getting taxpayers money at a time of severe budget constraints?
I am also sceptical – looks like old fashioned industrial policy to me. Do the companies get to keep all the profits if they are successful? And the state all the losses if they are not? Looks a bit lose-lose to me.
As an electrical engineer, I welcome this.
There are products available at present, but they tend to be low powered and not yet suitable for domestic / commercial / general applications. If this contract is to commercialize the cutting edge stuff into products we can use then it could be money well spent.
However the big lighting corporations like Philips (EU) and General Electric (US) are probably way ahead, spending millions already.
Great post, it really is important for more companies to hop on the lighting efficiency bandwagon. LED lighting has grown to become the most effecient way to produce light while being stunning to look at in many ways. While I admit I work for Sharp, the quality of LED’s we offer are the most innovative in quality on the market.
A great deal of money is wasted on trying to correct problems that older teens have as they are involved in drugs and crime – to fund the habit. Modest investments in youth clubs, basketball courts, music youth workshops and training through hobby based skill production. parenting classes (life skills) would help raise self esteem reduce influence of peer pressure and cost less than correcting the problems often caused by poor parenting .