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Carmanah & Semex Establish Manufacturing and Distribution Partnership in Mexico
LIGHTimes News Staff
January 8, 2010...Carmanah, a maker of solar-powered LED lighting based in Canada and Semex, a producer of traffic signals in Mexico, have partnered to manufacture solar LED lighting and signaling solutions for outdoor lighting and traffic applications. The manufacturing will take place at Semex’s facility in Monterrey, Mexico.
Carmanah solar technology will power the products, which will incorporate Semex components. According to Carmanah, the solar LED lighting solutions will offer stand-alone lighting that can operate completely free from electrical grid connections to provide reliable illumination for a variety of outdoor lighting applications such as: streets, parking lots, and residential areas.
Carmanah News Release
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Luminus Devices Claims Lender Reneged, and Layoffs May be Necessary to Keep Company in Operation
January 8, 2010... Several new products that leverage Luminus Devices' PhlatLight LED technology were showcased at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. These products include an ultra-compact projector, and several LED-backlit TVs from LG Electronics. Despite high sales of LED-backlit TVs over the holidays and what many are projecting to be a high growth year in the sector, Luminus Devices claims that its money lender has reneged, according to a Boston Globe article. The article cites court documents in which Luminus alleges that Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. and several related entities, reneged on a $15.1 million loan, and blocked access to its bank accounts. The company filed a legal complaint Dec. 18 in Suffolk Superior Court. Luminus reportedly warned that unless it can persuade a judge to act quickly and allow it to regain access to its cash, it might have to shut down or slash its staff. In court, Hercules countered in US District Court in Boston, where the case was moved, that it was justified in seizing Luminus’s bank accounts, because the Luminus' finances deteriorated so rapidly that it doubted Luminus would be able to make its loan payments of $800,000 per month starting this month, over the next two years. Luminus indicated in the article that some of its staff of about 130 employees at its Billerica, Massachusetts headquarters and its Woburn factory would have to laid off unless it could get access to its accounts.
Cyberlux Resolves Litigation with NIR Group, Ltd.
LIGHTimes News Staff
January 5, 2010...Cyberlux Corporation of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina USA, a provider of LED lighting solutions, reports that the company has reached a resolution of its litigation with the NIR Group, Ltd. and its affiliates. The NIR group is an investment company focused on small and micro-cap companies. Terms of the resolution were not disclosed. Cyberlux News Release, LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
UMC Has Groundbreaking Ceremony for LED Technology Park in China
LIGHTimes News Staff
January 5, 2010...United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) held a groundbreaking ceremony on December 29 for the construction of a technology park for the development and manufacture of LED chips and other new energy products in Jinan, Shandong province, China, according to a Digitimes article. UMC hopes the technology park will become the largest LED cluster in China in five years.
Avago Announces LED Lamp Series for Electronic Signage
LIGHTimes News Staff
January 5, 2010...Avago announced a new series of 5mm green and blue high brightness through-hole LEDs for use in electronic sign and signal applications. The company contends that the reliable, high performance HLMP-Cxxx Through-hole round LED lamp series can help improve the contrast ratio and readability of electric signs in sunlight. Avago says that the new LEDs are also ideal for use in traffic signs, variable message signs, and monocolor Signs. The HLMP-Cxxx series LEDs is made with an advanced optical grade epoxy which provides what the company says is superior high temperature and high moisture resistance. Additionally the company says that the package epoxy has high Ultra-violet resistivity, which can reduce the effects of long term exposure to direct sunlight. Samples and production quantities are available now through Avago’s direct sales channel and worldwide distribution partners. Avago News Release
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Happy LED Lighting New Year! (Updated 1/5)
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
December 31, 2009...(Also see the critical Energy Star standards call to action at the bottom of this editorial)... 2009 has been an interesting year, starting out in the midst of a serious recession, the solid state lighting industry kept things on a pretty even keel, with the main effect being a "push out" for general adoption progress. It serves as a decent business planning lesson, to remember that you need to plan not only for your and the industry's growth, but also for the circumstances around you. The arena that might best punctuate this "circumstances beyond our control" happenstance is the credit crunch that has rolled through the economy like a bowling ball hitting the pins. Only a few are struck by the direct impact, the rest tumble as a result of chaos the direct hit caused. Credit was free and easy for the last decade or more, driven both by government policy and the seemingly eternal "up is the only direction that exists" mentality that the dot-com and real-estate bubbles appear to have created. How short our memories are... what goes up does come down, back to, and often below, the inherent value of the asset in question. The thing is, we humans are really good at forgetting the bad parts and remembering the good. No problem with that, as long as the lesson is learned. I don't remember the second to last time I burned myself on something hot, and the last time is only in my memory because it was this morning... oh yeah, that part of the waffle iron is hot. I do remember that scorching hot things generally hurt, and that long-learned lesson took hold quickly as the hand went from the iron, to the water, and then to the ice in very short order. It doesn't hurt now, and apparently the damage was forestalled, but a lesson without attachment to the original disaster that taught me the lesson. So it goes with markets, bubbles, recessions and depressions. We remember the glory days and expect that the current run is going to be better than that one, then zap... that "something unexpected" happens.
Times are tough... what a great time to save on operating expenses! LED lighting should have been a shoe-in during a downturn, as the quality companies really can deliver on energy savings and maintenance payback with the technology class of 2009. But... no new buildings are happening. Hmmm. How about retrofits (which cost a bit more up-front, since you have to tear out as well as install the new stuff)? Well sure, if you want to invest some of the stored away cash that you might need to keep the doors open if business stays down for a while. How about borrowing the amounts for the needed capital outlay, since they operating savings should more than cover the cost of borrowing the funds? Great, if someone will make the loan on what many would consider "unproven" technology. Education can take them past the "unproven" part, but why should "the lender" take time to get educated when there is little enough credit availability around that "lenders" can pick and choose from lots of opportunities that they already understand.
All of this conspired to simply slow things down a bit. Opportunities slid a bit further out than predicted, with expected revenues delayed. With 500-1000 luminaire manufacturers out there claiming to offer solid state lighting products, there are a lot of mouths to feed, and the slowdown is taking its toll. Perhaps even more so when one considers that a reasonable number of them are already involved in the lighting market, and were already getting hammered by the commercial building slowdown. They are hanging on, but plenty of them will be biting the dust in 2010. Count on it. Round 1 of the industry shakeout it here. From one aspect, that is totally natural with any growing market; lots of entries and good ideas, but too many to all survive. Something triggers consolidation, and in this case, it was the great credit-driven recession of 2008-2009 (likely to be reinforced by the great government deficit spending credit and interest rate crisis of 2010... 2011...).
So where does that take the LED-based lighting industry for 2010? To the edge of the precipice, or towards the land of milk and honey? As a manufacturer, it depends on what you're bringing to the table, whether you've capitalized on building brand and revenues, and have the financial backing or resources to keep it together until you do. If you're short on any of those, fix it quick. 2010 will be unforgiving to the unprepared or unqualified. If you have those checklist items on your side, then get ready, because the decision makers are going to begin really seeing through the shenanigans of mediocre product and if you've got quality on your side, and can back it up with the test results, things will probably go really well for you. This will be a year of decent industry growth overall, but my suspicion is that it will be created not by everyone going up, but by many going down and a few going up quite spectacularly. We're assembling the cadre of who we feel will be among those winners with the 2010 SSL Summit series, kicking off with the LA/Long Beach SSL Summit Jan 20-21. It's going to generally be a select group (a stack of key decision makers are already confirmed), and while everyone is welcome to attend, there are plenty of companies, even ones with good quality, that figure they know it all and don't need the dialog with the decision makers that we're setting up (yes, I'm looking at you over there...). There will also be those that know they need to take the quality up a notch to catch up with their marketing and branding success so far, who will probably have the most to gain by being there (you know who you are too).
So this really will be a Happy New Year as we look towards 2010. Industry growth adds up to more opportunity for everyone, and while people and IP may not be ending 2010 with the same companies that they started the year with, it really will be good. Let's keep making a difference, and we'll see the winners in Long Beach.
Critical call to action: The US EPA and DOE sent out two documents in early December regarding the realignment of roles for the two agencies with regard to Energy Star. Both have a ridiculously short feedback/comment period of one month, which ends January 8th. One is an overall Energy Star enhancement plan, which looks like its main objective is to further increase the scope of the existing government program, as well as to kick off a new building-level program designed to replace the great work the Green Building Council has done with their LEED certifications, with a new bureaucracy that will add confusion and delay success (of course, that's just my opinion, but what can you expect when the overall plan includes new categories of specs to include battery chargers and game consoles?). The second document is an Energy Star Qualified Lighting - Integration Proposal, which looks as though it will push for more "technology neutrality" and will change a definition to allow the cruddy EPA-created RLF 4.2 "LED Light Engine" specification to continue to live, but limit it to "decorative light fixtures" (so seriously, what's the point of a lumen-per-watt metric of the "light engine" inside a decorative fixture which has no requirements to let those lumens out? Simply to allow manufacturers to fool the consumer by claiming an energy efficiency that doesn't exist. Why not change the EPA automobile gas mileage rating to read "this car's engine only uses 2 gallons per hour... and top speed is 2 miles per hour". Idiot approach... oops, did I write that down?). The technology neutrality is likely just as stupid when given thought. If it is real, it will either relatively quickly set the standard so high that no other technology besides LEDs will meet it, or you protect the interests of the incumbent luminaire/fixture constituency and keep the standard low enough to allow them to play. How about the integrated Energy Star standards also including a 0 mercury content and 90% recyclable content requirements? They are the Environmental Protection Agency aren't they... not just the "took energy savings initiatives away from the Department of Energy, or did I miss something?... (Plan for the gutless approach that appeases friends outside the SSL industry... at least they are claiming they are going to be transparently gutless this time around). Overall, it looks like it sets in place a great framework for the death of a useful Energy Star program for everyone.
Download the plans, and I am confident a quick scan will reveal at least a few items your company will want to comment on, either as an LED lighting stakeholder or a taxpayer. If 500 companies involved with SSL all send in just one specific, useful comment, we will have sent the message that they either will need to listen to the solid state lighting industry, or they will automatically have set themselves against the very industry that can deliver on real lighting efficiency. Again, we'll see the winners in Long Beach.
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