DOE’s L Prize Competition Encourages Solid-State Lighting Product Development

The Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prizes (L Prize) competition is the first government-sponsored technology competition that is meant to spur development of solid-state lighting products. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was directed to establish this program by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The legislation challenges the lighting industry to develop replacement technologies for 60W incandescent lamps and PAR38 halogen lamps, in addition to creating a lamp that delivers more than 150 lm/W. The competition involves a rigorous evaluation process and many technical specifications. According to the website, lightingprize.org, proposals will be accepted for each product category until a winner is declared in each category, or until 24 months have elapsed since the first award in a given category, whichever comes first.