by Brianna Crandall — February 28, 2011—Winners of the third annual Next Generation Luminaires (NGL) awards were announced February 23 at the Strategies in Light Conference in Santa Clara, California. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, and the International Association of Lighting Designers, the competition was launched in 2008 to promote excellence in the design of energy-efficient LED luminaires for general illumination in commercial lighting applications.
A panel of 12 judges from the architectural lighting design community evaluated the NGL entries based on performance, appearance, construction, and submitted photometric data. The “best-in-class” winners came from four different manufacturers and covered four different areas of lighting:
- The Lighting Quotient, Inc. (West Haven, CT): Awarded “best-in-class” for its Linear Concealed LED Luminaire cove lighting fixture
- Philips Color Kinetics (Burlington, MA) : Awarded “best-in-class” for its eW Burst Powercore faade lighting fixture
- Koncept Technologies, Inc. (Monterey Park, CA): Awarded “best-in-class” for its Equo LED Desk Lamp task lighting fixture
- USAI (New Windsor, NY): Awarded “best-in-class” for its NanoLED recessed accent lighting fixture
- Philips Color Kinetics (Burlington, MA) : Awarded “best-in-class” for its eW Burst Powercore faade lighting fixture
This year, 42 commercial LED lighting products were recognized for excellence. Out of 138 entries from 61 companies, 33 were recognized as “winners,” in addition to the four that were chosen as “best in class.” An additional five products were deemed “notable,” a new category created for those NGL entries that might not yet be considered specifiable but nevertheless have at least one outstanding characteristic deserving of recognition.
Winners represented a wide range of manufacturers and applications, such as recessed accent lighting, wall washing, industrial lighting, recessed downlighting, decorative pendant and wall lighting, in-grade lighting, street and area lighting, and general illumination. More information on all the winning entries is available at the Next Generation Luminaires Web site.
Design competitions are a key part of DOE’s national strategy to accelerate solid-state lighting technology advances from laboratory to marketplace. DOE also provides federal leadership and technical support for a wide range of market introduction activities. For more information about the DOE SSL Portfolio, visit EERE’s Solid-State Lighting Web site.
