These findings come just as California hits the milestone of installing more than 1 gigawatt of rooftop solar power across the state —- a milestone that only five other countries in the world have reached. California’s solar market has been expanding exponentially by about 40 percent per year. If the market continues growing at a rate of 25 percent per year, the state will achieve the 3,000 MW goal by the end of 2016.

"California can become the Saudi Arabia of the sun if it continues to get behind big, successful solar programs," said Michelle Kinman, clean energy advocate with Environment California Research & Policy Center and co-author of the report, Building a Brighter Future: California’s Progress Toward a Million Solar Roofs. "All signs point to a bright future for solar power in California, meaning cleaner air, cleaner energy, and more jobs." Details

Tasked with designing and building an innovative and efficient solar home, the team decided on features like a rainwater collection system and northward facing glass doors. No less important, they also needed to effectively and efficiently light the space. With the help of Cooper Lighting, the team selected Halo H7 LED Downlights and Halo H4 LED Downlights to illuminate all interior spaces and keep overall energy costs down. "Our goal with the lighting was to choose a product that offered a neutral color temperature to match the white ceiling, walls, panels and cabinetry around the house," said Orlando Leone of FIU’s Solar Decathlon team. “And since the competition focuses on developing a final product that uses minimal energy, we needed an extremely efficient solution. The Halo lighting fixtures that Cooper provided were a perfect fit and helped to provide the exact look and efficiency rating we hoped to achieve.” Details

Prior to installation, Accelerated Electric Inc., the electrical contractor for this project, and RA Burch, the general contractor, commissioned third-party testing of the Cree LR24 luminaries against the proposed linear fluorescent lighting to evaluate the amount of heat distributed and impact on air conditioning. The study found that the LED luminaires put out 44 percent less heat than the proposed fluorescents and contributed a 15 degree rise in ambient temperature rather than the 25 degree increase from fluorescents when compared to a baseline of no lighting.

"Based on the results from our model, we were able to demonstrate the efficacy of Cree LED fixtures, which use 31 percent less energy than traditional fluorescent lighting, for the Camp Pendleton installation," said William Porges, president of Accelerated Electric Inc. "Utilizing these fixtures can significantly reduce building electrical loads and result in dramatically lowered energy costs. We also found that additional energy savings can be attributed to the decrease in air conditioning usage."

"With the increased focus on greening government facilities, Camp Pendleton is a great example of how easy it is to achieve both energy and maintenance savings with LED lighting," said David Elien, Cree, vice president LED lighting adoption. "The energy-efficient Cree products used in this installation comply with the Buy American Act and fulfill base lighting needs while providing high-quality light, reduced maintenance and potential HVAC savings, helping Camp Pendleton join the LED Lighting Revolution." Details

In other news at the company, Cree’s Ruud Lighting subsidiary based in Racine, Wis., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony to highlight a 208,000-square-foot expansion to its manufacturing facility. The company’s $24.5 million investment will focus on manufacturing and assembly of LED lighting and is expected to create 469 new full-time jobs over the next four years. “Cree’s recent acquisition of Ruud Lighting and its BetaLED products brought together two leading LED lighting companies under one roof,” said Chuck Swoboda, chairman and CEO of Cree. “Last month this facility shipped its 500,000th LED luminaire — further evidence of the market demand for the latest LED technology and a need to expand our facilities to maintain our leadership of the LED lighting revolution.”

A WattStopper press statement said under Mix’s leadership the company evolved from a startup to a $120-million plus company offering energy-efficient lighting control solutions for commercial and residential applications. He currently sits on the advisory board of the California Lighting Technology Center, as well as the boards of Finelite, ETM Tailored Power Subsystems and Finis.

Pournaras has been an executive with WattStopper for the past seven years, rising to his current position as V.P. of sales and marketing after 15 years with Legrand/Pass & Seymour, where he served in a number of director-level sales and marketing roles that included the retail and electrical distribution channels. Pournaras is a graduate of St. Mary’s College and earned his MBA from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

“On average, the Round 13 LED luminaires show a significant improvement in efficacy over LED luminaires tested in 2009 and 2010, with a minimum efficacy close to the average observed in 2009-2010. In addition, the variation in performance across the Round 13 LED luminaires is less than in 2009-2010 products; that is, there were smaller differences between minimum and maximum efficacy, power factor, CCT (correlated color temperature) and CRI (color rendering index).”

In each of the categories, CALiPER testers found luminaires that performed according to claims made in their manufacturers’ marketing literature and Lighting Facts labels, and some that did not. In some cases the LED units outperformed the conventional fixtures used as benchmarks. “When compared to similar products using conventional light sources such as fluorescent, HPS, or metal halide, the LED luminaires provided similar or better color characteristics and comparable or better luminaire efficacies, on average,” said the DOE. “Some of the LED luminaires also provided equal or better light output and preferable distributions. There were still, however, large differences in performance across the LED luminaires, with some products not performing as rated and many not meeting manufacturer equivalency claims.” Click here to get a copy of the full report.

June 3-6, 2012
WindPower 2012 Atlanta, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA); 202-383-2500, windmail@awea.org, www.windpowerexpo.org

Sept. 10-13, 2012
SolarPower 2012 Orlando, Solar Energy Industries Association); (202) 682-0556, swatson@seia.org, www.seia.org