DOE Funds Solid State Lighting R&D At Sandia

U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman announced that Sandia National Laboratories is the new home of the National Laboratory Center for Solid-State Lighting Research and Development.

Sandia will conduct vital solid-state lighting research and coordinate related research efforts at several other national laboratories.

The Department of Energy will provide funding of $5 million for seven research projects in solid-state lighting, including $2.6 million for four Sandia projects, Bodman said. The funding comes from DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

“The research will be conducted at the new nanotechnology centers at our national laboratories,” Bodman said, including the just dedicated Sandia/Los Alamos Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT). “This is part of nearly $20 million we are committing this year to support research and development efforts in this rapidly emerging technology.”

Bodman laid out the case for investment in solid-state lighting R&D, noting that 18 percent of all US energy generated — valued at some $55 billion — goes to lighting homes, offices, and factories.

“We believe a set of revolutionary new technologies called solid-state lighting,” Bodman said, “offer excellent prospects for meeting our future lighting needs in a less costly, more efficient way than today’s incandescent and even fluorescent fixtures. . . . We at the Department of Energy want to see it fully developed as quickly as possible.

“We also believe that solid-state lighting presents an excellent opportunity for the U.S. to assume a leadership role in an emerging industry that can generate thousands of high-paying, high quality jobs in the years ahead and help maintain the U.S. economy’s strong record of global leadership in growth and jobs creation.”

Every intersection in Albuquerque where the traffic signals have been changed to use solid-state LED lights, the city saves about $1,000 a year, according to U.S. Rep Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), who was also on hand at the Sandia announcement.