LEDs combined with solar energy are becoming a top choice in humanitarian aid missions to Africa, which aim to eliminate harmful pollution from burning kerosene lamps that has been the main cause of household air pollution and estimated to be the cause of death of 500,000 people in the continent each year, reported The Conversation.

Philips CEO of Lighting Eric Rondolat calls for the importance of ending light poverty.

Alessandro Farini, head researcher of the Visual Ergonomy Lab at the CNR-National Institute of Optics in Florence, Italy, shares in this UN International Year of Light blog entry the impact of lighting on visual perception.

Each April 2, 2014, Autism Speaks celebrates Light It Up Blue along with the international autism community, in commemoration of the United Nations-sanctioned World Autism Awareness Day.

Observance of an International Year of Light in 2015 will help raise awareness of the important role of photonics in solving challenges in healthcare, communications, food supply, and other important issues for people everywhere, say leaders of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. SPIE is among scientific organizations around the world that have championed proclamation by the United Nations of the observance, and whose members are planning outreach activities and celebrations.

It’s reported that French Center for Building Science and Technology (CSTB), major French academic lighting laboratories and the French branch of Philips Lighting has formed a R&D program to research and promote the optimal use of LEDs in buildings.  

It’s reported that Philips has plans to manufacture LEDs lighting products in India in future. Philips, the largest player in the Indian lighting market, also intends to enhance the production capacity of its compact fluorescent light (CFL) plant based in Mohali (Punjab) by 50-60% by 2010.

Philips Lumileds has launched a free online tool that makes it easier for manufacturers of LED-based luminaires to show compliance with ENERGY STAR® standards. The new tool addresses the requirements of the “Chromaticity and Spatial Uniformity” test in the ENERGY STAR® specification for LED lighting that requires the beam of light to appear the same color to the human eye, regardless of which area of the beam the viewer looks at or where they are at in relation to the light source.

Dialight has introduced its innovative SafeSite range of LED fixtures - 100W high brightness SafeSite® 250 Series. The company says the LED fixture is designed to replace 250W High Pressure Sodium (HPS) light sources in hazardous location applications.

The Levi ski resort in Finland has installed LED street lighting from OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. It is the first LED street lighting in Finland. The local authority is investing heavily in its regional infrastructure, placing great emphasis on innovation and sustainability.

Gallium Nitride (GaN), a man-made semiconductor used to make LEDs, emits brilliant light but uses very little electricity. New GaN LED lighting has the potential to make LEDs a household fixture, but high production costs have made GaN lighting too expensive for wide spread use in homes and offices. However the Cambridge University based Centre for Gallium Nitride has developed a new way of making GaN which could produce LEDs for a tenth of current prices.

Recently, IST Ltd has appointed three new strategic partners to distribute its downlighters, LED drivers and other LED lighting products in Sweden, Finland, Poland and Ireland. IST’s growing network of distributors will be Stockholm Lighting Company in Sweden and Finland, Alfa-Zeta in Poland and Enlighten, part of the Fantasy Lights Group, in Ireland.

Due to short-term market demand and uncertain outlook, Royal Philips Electronics has announced that it will impair the book value of its Lumileds business by EUR 232 million (approximately $305 million). During the company’s investor and analyst day, this move was initially indicated. Philips said the value adjustment was a consequence of reduced short-term market demand and uncertain outlook caused by the current macro economic downturn.

Incandescent light bulbs could soon become a thing of the past. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy is pushing a "15-30" move aiming to replace 30%of lights in the country with more energy-efficient LEDs by the year 2015. The European Union and Australia have announced plans to ban sales of ordinary light bulbs and halogen lighting within the next four years.

It’s reported that Benjamin Damilano and a group of researchers of the CRHEA-CNRS in Valbonne Sophia-Antipolis, France, have created quantum well-based white LEDs.

The EU-funded project ROLLED has succeeded in developing a flexible OLED light source that could make packaging more attractive, among other applications.

The incandescent lamp is being discontinued in Europe because it is so inefficient, the replacement of 3.5 billion incandescent lamps installed throughout Europe will lead to a reduction in the power consumed by lighting systems by more than 30 percent.

It’s reported that European researchers have developed a cost-effective method for manufacturing flexible displays in much the same way that newspapers are printed.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors and BASF have developed a highly efficient white organic light-emitting diode (OLED). This is for the first time that an OLED not only is able to achieve a light yield of more than 60 lm/W, but also meets the international Energy Star SSL Standard with regard to color requirements.  

It’s reported that Cree Inc. has achieved industry-best reported R&D results of 161 lumens per watt for a white power LED. Cree's tests confirmed that the 1mm x 1mm LED produced 173 lumens of light output and achieved 161 lumens per watt efficacy at a color temperature of 4689K. The tests were conducted under standard LED test conditions at a drive current of 350mA, at room temperature.

The new Ostar Headlamp LED from Osram Opto Semiconductors has a number of features that improve the accuracy of the light pattern. They emit clearly defined light with high efficiency without the need for further external shutters. The LED can be equipped with between one and five chips. Instead of the usual silicone encapsulation, a glass cover bonded to the frame protects the chips, and also prevents scatter losses.

Recently, Freescale Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics announced they will collaborate to address the burgeoning market for LEDs. Arman Naghavi, vice president and general manager of Freescale's Analog, Mixed-Signal and Power Division, pointed out that Freescale's LED backlight driver technology is the industry's most compact and integrated solution, their  collaboration with Samsung on LED backlighting in order to help spur further innovation and growth in the LCD market.

It’s reported that researchers working in the European ROLLED project have developed a flexible OLED element that can be mass produced using roll-to-roll printing technology. The OLED elements can be used to add value to product packages. The new method is considerably cheaper than the traditional manufacturing method. The project was coordinated by VTT, and project participants included INM, CSEM, Ciba, Hansaprint, UPM and PolylC.

It’s known that LED is a semiconductor diode that emits light when an electric current is applied in the forward direction of the device, as in the simple LED circuit.

Recently, five large billboards, each measuring 4m high by 3m tall, have been installed at Barcelona airport by Sakma, a local manufacturer. The billboards use an array of LEDs, rather than fluorescent lamps, to achieve uniform lighting with much lower operating costs.

It’s reported that Cadillac has introduced the first car sold here to use an all-LED headlight system. Hella, a German lighting supplier that developed the system, recently showed off the new headlights at a demonstration for journalists at General Motors' GM Proving Grounds. Siegfried Hetz, senior product engineer for Hella, pointed out that there are several advantages to the LED headlights:

Light bulbs and fluorescent tubes are far away from the optimal efficiency, while OLED can offer new perspectives for novel large area light sources for display and lighting applications. Such displays are increasingly applied to mobile telephones, digital cameras, or pocket computers. In future these small light miracles will play an important role for TV screens and for lighting.

It’a reported that Lighting Science (LSG), a global developer and integrator of intelligent and efficient LED solutions, and the ACO Group, the worldwide leader in water drain systems and intelligent water drainage, announced the global availability of the ACO Eyeleds solution for illuminating outdoor spaces.

Recently, Cree, Inc., a market leader in LED lighting, announces the release of its new-generation high-brightness 4-mm and 5-mm oval LEDs in blue, green and red. These new oval LEDs feature optically-matched radiation patterns in blue, green and red, resulting in superior image quality for digital billboard and full-color sign applications.

Recently, Irish company Nualight, which specializes in LED-based food display illumination, has announced its selection by leading retailer Tesco in a EUR1million deal to implement its energy-saving LED lighting product in Tesco Ireland’s stores.