The L-Prize Calls All Innovators for the Prototype Phase By KELLY GORDON Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
The new L-Prize seeks innovative luminaires and connected systems that demonstrate exceptional achievement across six areas.
More than a decade ago, the Department of Energy (DOE) staged a technology competition that challenged the lighting industry to develop high-performance, energy-saving LED replacements for conventional 60-watt, screw-in light bulbs. The DOE dubbed its effort the “L-Prize,” which two years later resulted in the Philips 10-watt, A-19 LED replacement lamp that helped revolutionize lighting. The technology innovations in that L-Prize winner—more efficacious LED chips, electronic miniaturization, better heat transfer, improved optics, and remote phosphors—found their way into later generations of Philips LED products. At
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the time, progress on the luminous efficacy of LEDs was a big focus, and the L-Prize winner showed that 90 lumens per Watt (lm/W) efficacy with high color rendering and very long life was possible, raising the bar for the entire lighting industry. Just in the United States alone, today’s LED replacement lamps are helping to avoid an estimated 98 million metric tons of carbon emissions each year. Fast-forward to 2021 by which time 90 lm/W was no longer a stretch goal for LED lighting products, but significant headroom for performance and application