On February 3rd, 2022 at the DOE SSL Workshop, Secretary of Energy, Janet Granholm announced the winners of the initial phase of the L-Prize competition. The L-Prize® was launched in May, 2021 by the DOE. It is a $12.2 million prize lighting competition “designed to spur groundbreaking innovation, domestic manufacturing, and the benefits of an inclusive, clean-energy economy for next-generation lighting solutions in commercial buildings.” It is divided into three separate phases and competitions.
The L-Prize® Concept Phase invited participation by nontraditional innovators such as students, individuals, and those outside the lighting industry as well as known manufacturers. The competition provided an opportunity in the Concept Phase for these participants to receive feedback on their proposed innovations from an Expert Review Panel made up of eight independent, external thought leaders from industry and academia.
The L-Prize® Concept Phase announced winners were:
Project Tango, submitted by QuarkStar of Las Vegas, Nevada. The networked, white-tunable luminaire concept leverages innovations in optics, LED, and power conversion technology to deliver high efficacy, exceptional quality of light, and precise control of light distribution.
Sustainable and Connected Troffer Retrofit, submitted by Orion Energy Systems of Jacksonville, Florida. The concept offers a high-efficacy, networked LED luminaire with advanced controls that can be retrofitted in less than two minutes to an existing fluorescent luminaire.
Laterally Symmetrical Level 3 Engine for 3D Printing, submitted by Smash the Bulb/Bridgelux of Mountain View, California. This 3D-printed semi-indirect luminaire concept uses a high-performance light engine that requires no secondary optics and delivers high efficacy and excellent quality of light; an innovative optical design that reduces losses and addresses glare; and a luminaire housing that can be 3D printed on the job site.
Papaya Modular Lighting Ecosystem, submitted by Papaya of Evanston, Illinois. This highly modular luminaire platform designed by a team from outside the lighting industry uses a unique community-based approach; an all open-source aspect offers opportunities for innovators of all types to participate in evolving and innovating this lighting solution over time.
Spotlight on Two of the Successful Entrants in their own words.
Orion Energy Systems of Jacksonville, Florida
In the concept category, we were invited to create next-generation LED lighting concepts designed to advance the US clean energy economy leading to transformative designs, products, and impact within the commercial lighting sector. Our sustainable and connected Troffer Retrofit accomplished those concepts by offering a high-efficacy, networked LED luminaire with advanced controls that includes Lifi technology that can be retrofitted in less than two minutes to an existing fluorescent luminaire.
Key Features and Benefits:
Retrofit design that allows for less 2-minute conversion of traditional fluorescent lamps into a LED technology with advance controls platform.
Lighting design that provides for better light distribution and glare control to meet and exceed DLC 5.1.
With 184 lm/W, it will be the most energy efficient retrofit in market with 80% plus energy savings – not including controls savings.
Light engine units are replaceable in the field to be upgraded to next generation, more efficient technology. The original host housing can remain installed, making the system more sustainable when the engine light needs replacement.
LED Light engine will provide Lifi internet connection with Quantum Encryption for secure communication.
LED Light engine can be swapped out during health concern periods to 405nm technology to sanitize surface areas against viruses, flus, bacteria, molds, fungi, or other pathogens. Once health period passes, standard light engine can be swapped back in the field.
D4i LED driver will be utilized to monitor energy reporting.
Advance controls system will have the following lighting strategies: task tuning with high-end trimming, scheduling, occupancy sensing, stability-controlled daylight harvesting, automatic demand response (ADR), Demand Reduction (DR), BMS/BAS integration, cloud connectivity.
Robust controls protocol combability: BACnet, Modbus, Bluetooth SIG mesh, Zigbee, Zigbee 3.0, Zigbee HA, Zigbee PRO and EnOcean, which allows for flexibility to allow for future advances in connectivity.
Application Deployment: Energy Management, Space Utilization, Employee and Asset Productivity, and Safety and Security.
Bridgelux of Fremont, California
Bridgelux (www.bridgelux.com), the leading developer and manufacturer of innovative LED solutions, is pleased to be recognized by the US Department of Energy for its breakthrough enabling technology. Working with local luminaire start-up, Smash the Bulb, Bridgelux was featured as one of the winning teams for the L-Prize Concept Phase. Four winners were announced by US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer M. Granholm on February 3 via Zoom call. According to the L-Prize website, the competition is “designed to catalyze transformative LED lighting innovation, products, and impact.”
Bridgelux’s holistic platform of products helped secure the L-Prize victory. Beginning with the unique phosphor-blend that matches the spectrum of natural light, the Bridgelux LEDs benefit human health while rendering color with near perfect fidelity. The judging committee specifically recognized Bridgelux’s level-3 IB module, a highly-efficient engine which delivers over 160 lumens/watt. The IB module’s on-board optics precludes any need for supplemental diffusers or batwing optics, which greatly facilitates the fixture design process. The IB batwing, soon to be released, was shown to provide better ceiling uniformity and facilitate wider spacing of luminaires, which leads to reduced lighting power density in the target applications of education, offices and healthcare.
In addition, Bridgelux provided the dual channel drivers, which allows seamless white-tuning and dimming to below 1%. Their Vesta®Flex platform controllers were also recognized for enabling application flexibility and interoperability with third party systems.
“As a luminaire manufacturer, winning the L-Prize is the highest honor,” says Smash the Bulb Founder Don Peifer. “It wouldn’t have been possible without Bridgelux. Their dedication to exhaustively exploring the most holistic and affective lighting solutions creates a remarkable opportunity for manufacturers and designers to stay ahead of the curve and innovate.”
There is a tangible level of excitement with this announcement as there was with the original L-Prize in 2011. That contest and prize are generally credited with the advancement of efficacy, color consistency and lumen maintenance in 60-Watt replacement A19 lamps. The hope is this new three phase contest will see similar advancements in luminaires
Next Phase 2, the Prototype Phase, will open this year and calls for prototype lighting systems allowing hands-on evaluation for technical performance and innovation. Finally, Phase 3, the Manufacturing and Installation Phase, will reward U.S. manufacturing and installation of lighting systems that meet rigorous L-Prize® technical requirements.
Participants are encouraged to form teams as necessary to turn great ideas into real products and installations.
More information on the DOE L-Prize can be found here.
More information on Orion Energy Systems can be found here.
More information of Bridgelux can be found here.