Next?Generation?Lighting?Initiative?NGLI

Because of the potential energy, environment and national security benefits, there is increasing national interest in creating a partnership – of industry, universities and national laboratories – aimed at accelerating the development of solid-state lighting science and technology.? For the most recent information on solid-state-lighting related programs sponsored the U.S. Department of Energy (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Program), please see their DOE SSL R&D Programs Website.? Here, we give a brief chronology of some of the events leading to these programs. ·?? Interest was catalyzed by an April 2000 white paper? co-authored by Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sandia National Laboratories. ·?? In March 2001, the Department of Energy's Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs and the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association published the results of an 18-month co-sponsored Solid-State Lighting Technology Roadmapping effort.? A summary of these results is called "The Promise of Solid-State Lighting for General Illumination: Light Emitting Diodes and Organic Light Emitting Diodes" ? The full SSL-LED roadmap, edited by Eric Jones at Sandia National Laboratories, is titled Light-Emitting Diodes for General Illumination.? The full SSL-OLED roadmap, edited by Milan Stolka, is titled Organic Light-Emitting Diodes for General Illumination. ·?? In July 2001, Senators Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Mike DeWine of Ohio introduced a bill to the Senate, S.1166 , which called for the establishment in the Department of Energy of a "Next-Generation Lighting Initiative" (NGLI).? Under the legislation, the Energy Secretary would set up a planning board that would have 180 days to develop a strategy for developing and implementing the technology.? The Energy Secretary would then seek to establish a consortium of companies, national laboratories and other entities, to accelerate the development and introduction of Solid-State Lighting.? The consortium would be funded by membership fees and grants awarded by DOE.? The bill would authorize $30 million for fiscal year 2002 and $50 million per year for fiscal years 2003 through 2011.? Senator Bingaman's speech introducing and supporting this Bill was given on July 11, 2001 (S7516-S7518) .? Arpad Bergh, President of the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association ( OIDA), testified to the Senate on behalf of this Bill on July 18, 2001 . ·?? In December 2001, the "Energy Policy Act of 2002," S.1766, was introduced to Congress. Sec. 1213? of this bill likewise calls for the establishment in the Department of Energy of a "Next Generation Lighting Initiative." Senator Bingaman's speech supporting this Bill was given on December 5, 2001 (S12426-S12430) ; he has also written an article, "Supporting the Next Generation of White Lighting Technology" , for Issues in Science and Technology. ·?? On April 25, 2002 , the portion of the Senate bill relating to the "Next Generation Lighting Initiative" was incorporated into the engrossed Senate amendment of H.R. 4, The Energy Policy Act of 2002.? The NGLI is described in Sec. 1213 of the engrossed Senate amendment.? Detailed activities related to the bill are available from the Library of Congress’ Thomas database here. ·?? Between April 25, 2002 and June 12, 2002 , House-Senate Conference Committee members were named by both chambers to resolve differences between the bills as passed in each chamber.? The conferees met June 27, 2002 .? The committee chair is Representative W.J. Tauzin (R-LA). ?House members of the conference committee included: M. Bilirakis (R-FL), J. Barton (R-TX), F. Upton (R-MI), C. Stearns (R-FL), P.E. Gillmor (R-OH), R. Burr (R-NC), J.D. Dingell (D-MI), H.A. Waxman (D-CA), E.J. Markey (D-MA), R. Boucher (D-VA), B. Gordon (D-TN), and R.L. Rush (D-IL).? In addition, House members were appointed to focus on specific portions of the legislation.? Those working on the NGLI included: S.L. Boehlert (R-CT), R.G. Bartlett (R-MD), and R.M. Hall (D-TX). ?T. Delay (R-TX) was also appointed. ?Senate members included: J. Bingaman (D-NM), E. Hollings (D-SC), M. Baucus (D-MT), J. Kerry (D-MA), J. Rockefeller (D-WV), J. Breaux (D-LA), H. Reid (D-NV), J. Jeffords (I-VT), J. Lieberman (D-CT), F. Murkowski (R-AK), P. Domenici (R-NM), C. Grassley (R-IA), D. Nickles (R-OK), T. Lott (R-MS), L. Craig (R-ID), B. N. Campbell (R-CO), and C. Thomas (R-WY). ·?? On May 30, 2002 , OIDA and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association ( NEMA) hosted a LED workshop in Albuquerque, NM.? At this workshop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs (DOE-BTS), technology targets and challenges were debated by experts from universities, industry, and national laboratories.? The results will appear in an update to the March 2001 roadmap.? This update was completed in September 2002, and is called "Light-Emitting Diodes for General Illumination: An OIDA Technology Roadmap Update 2002." The full SSL-LED , full SSL-OLED and summary SSL? reports are available here. ·?? Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, described current energy policy and the exciting possibilities of solid-state lighting in a speech to the National Press Club on June 12, 2002 . ·?? November 13-14, 2003 , the U.S. Department of Energy (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Program) sponsored a Solid-State Lighting Workshop in Washington, DC.? The workshop introduced a new, government-industry collaborative program aimed at saving energy by supporting the research and development of solid state lighting.? Using previously developed research plans for solid state lighting, the workshop prioritized relevant research topics, and set early performance milestones. ·?? In February 2004, a new energy bill, S. 2095, "The Energy Policy Act of 2003", was introduced by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM).? Section 905 of this bill describes the Next Generation Lighting Initiative (NGLI), providing support for research, development, demonstration, and commercial application activities related to advanced solid-state lighting technologies based on white LEDs.? "The objectives of the initiative shall be to develop advanced solid-state organic and inorganic lighting technologies based on white light emitting diodes that, compared to incandescent and fluorescent lighting technologies, are longer lasting; more energy-efficient; and cost-competitive, and have less environmental impact."? (See text of S. 2095 here - text related to the NGLI appears on pages 496-500. ) ·?? In July 2004, the U.S. Department of Energy (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Program) selected the Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance (NGLIA) to serve as its partner in support of research, development and demonstration (RD&D) activities in its Solid State Lighting (SSL) Portfolio.? The partnership is expected to provide a manufacturing and commercialization focus for DOE’s SSL Portfolio and to accelerate the commercialization of SSL technologies through:? DOE access to the technical expertise of the organization’s members, communication of SSL Portfolio accomplishments with the SSL community, and cooperative efforts of the partnership to promote demonstrations of SSL technologies.? No federal funding will be provided to the NGLIA.? (For more on the NGLIA, see this fact sheet and presentation. ) ·?? In March-July, 2004, a number of SSL R&D Program Solicitations were released by the U.S. Department of Energy (Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Program).? These solicitations focused on four areas of solid state lighting product development:? 1) LED Luminaire Design and Materials, 2) High Efficiency, Reliable, Intelligent Electronics for LEDs, 3) OLED Luminaire Design and Materials, and 4) High Efficiency, Reliable, Intelligent Electronics for OLEDs.? They also spanned a range of R&D including Applied Research, Product Development and Systems Generation, Demonstration, and Market Conditioning. ?In August, 2004, eleven projects were selected for funding.? Seven were for commercial/academic projects:? four for LEDs (about $7.7M over 3 years, including cost shared amounts) and three for OLEDs (about $6.9M over 3 years, including cost shared amounts).? Four were for national laboratory projects (about $5.9M over 2-3 years). ·?? On Feb. 2, 2005, DOE signed a memorandum of agreement with the Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance (NGLIA) to establish a partnership that will help support the development and commercialization of SSL technology. The NGLIA, administered by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), is an alliance of for-profit corporations formed in 2003 to accelerate SSL development and commercialization through government-industry partnership. The alliance provides the SSL industry with a forum for communication and collaboration, offers feedback to DOE on the Department's SSL research and development strategies, and promotes SSL interests through collaborative advocacy to the federal government. Alliance members include 3M, Corning Inc., Cree Inc., Dow Corning, GELcore LLC, General Electric Company, Eastman Kodak Company, Lumileds Lighting LLC, Osram Opto Semiconductors Inc., and Philips Electronics North America Corporation. [ Information on agreement, NEMA press release ] ·?? On Feb. 3 and 4, 2005, the 2nd Annual DOE Solid State Lighting Workshop was held in San Diego. The workshop provided an interactive forum for shaping and prioritizing DOE's SSL research and development activities. Participants reviewed, discussed, and prioritized more than 65 R&D tasks and subtasks within the DOE SSL R&D agenda. ( Highlights of the workshop, attended by more than 170 representatives from industry, research institutions, universities and national labs, are described in an article available on the NETL website.) As a result, DOE released an updated version of its solid-state lighting R&D agenda. Workshop materials available online include presentations made at the workshop, reference documents, and the 2005 Project Portfolio for Solid-State Lighting. This 137-page document, dated January 2005, lists projects currently funded by DOE as well as those completed in 2003 and 2004. Each profile includes a brief technical description and information about project partners, funding, and research period. A report on the workshop, prepared by Navigant Consulting, includes an outline of the structure of the DOE SSL Research and Development Portfolio, as presented at the workshop; summaries of workshop presentations; summaries of the breakout session discussions; results of the updates and prioritization of the SSL R&D agenda; and upcoming activities for the SSL R&D program. ·?? In August 2005, The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, with several provisions for solid-state lighting, passed Congress and was signed into law. The bill authorizes the formation of the Next Generation Lighting Initiative (NGLI), which supports R&D, demonstration, and commercial application activities related to advancing SSL technologies based on white LEDs. The bill designates up to $50 million for NGLI programs for each of the fiscal years 2007 through 2009 (sec. 912, p. 818 and pp. 820-825), with extended authorization of $50 million for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2013 (see reference to section 912 in section 911(d), p. 819). The bill also directs DOE to carry out a program of fundamental research on SSL, in support of the NGLI (sec. 975, "Solid State Lighting," p. 961). The $12.3 billion bipartisan bill represents a compromise between previous versions of the bill, which had been in the works for several years. [ Full text of bill ( PDF ); also available at http://thomas.loc.gov/ ] ·?? In August 2005, DOE issued two solicitations for SSL research: "Solid State Lighting Core Technologies" (FOA), and "Research Call to DOE National Laboratories: Research and Development Activities to Support Solid-State Lighting Core Technologies" ("Lab Call"). The solicitations seek proposals for applied research in these areas: LED high-efficiency semiconductor materials; LED device approaches, structures and systems; OLED materials issues; and OLED packaging, encapsulation and fabrication. [ FOA summary and full announcement; Lab Call and clarification ]?