News

24 August 2009

 

Energy Focus awarded extra $0.5m for LED lighting in Navy ships

Energy-efficient lighting technology firm Energy Focus Inc of Solon, OH, USA has been awarded a $0.5m Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) extension grant from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop and produce solid-state lighting fixtures for general use on Navy ships. The new fixtures will replace 50W and 110W water-tight incandescent fixtures currently in use. Energy Focus will hence be able to offer energy-efficient, long-life LED lighting alternatives to replace both incandescent and fluorescent systems across the entire US Navy fleet.

Utilizing its proprietary ultra-low-distortion solid-state power supply technology, the fixtures will be developed over the next 11 months. Beyond efficiency, life, and maintenance specifications, the fixtures must meet the Navy’s new stringent requirements for LED systems, which include light output, shock and vibration, corrosion, EMC and EMI compliance. “The SSL lights developed under this grant will save a significant amount of energy and maintenance,” says Energy Focus’ CTO Roger Buelow. “As an example, using only 26W, a new LED fixture saves 76% (or 84W) over the incandescent fixture it replaces,” he adds. “In addition, we fully expect that bulb replacement will become a thing of the past with the LEDs’ projected lifetime of up to 50,000 hours or more.”

“With the addition of this $0.5m grant, the Department of Defense has now awarded Energy Focus $1.9m to develop energy-efficient LED lighting for the US Navy,” says the firm’s CEO Joe Kaveski. “Energy Focus' incandescent replacement LED technology will go beyond military applications, saving energy for the country as a whole in broad commercial applications, providing energy-efficient, mercury-free, long-life alternatives to the incandescent bulbs which the US is phasing out beginning in 2012,” he adds.

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