Guest Blog Post: Why We Push for Revolution, not Evolution

All month long, Cree has celebrated Energy Awareness Month. Through a series of blog posts, Cree has brought to you information about ways our products and our customers and partners are helping save energy. Today’s final guest blog post is by Cree’s senior director of marketing, LED components, Mike Watson.

Revolution. It’s a popular word these days. Much of the current revolution discussion is politically or socially motivated (the Middle East, Occupy Wall Street, etc.). Here at Cree, we talk about the energy revolution and more specifically, the LED lighting revolution every day.

Many countries outside North America know that to meet future economic demands, they must fundamentally change the way they consume power and they must do it now.

Instead of talking about change, they are making it, via policy directives and government mandates to encourage innovation and implementation of energy-efficient products. Just look at China – it recently completed its largest highway lighting upgrade with more than 10,000 street lights and more than a million Cree LEDs!

When we look back at the last 100 years of lighting, precious little has changed in terms of technology, performance or form factor.  Lighting technologies haven’t evolved as demand has increased.

This type of evolution isn’t going to work for LED lighting, nor will it happen fast enough for us to address ever-increasing energy consumption.   

The much lauded (and much maligned) CFL has been heralded for more than thirty years, but market penetration has stalled at just about 10 percent. Yes, stalled, despite massive promotions at big box hardware stores, continued rebates from power companies and technical and quality improvements over several decades. 

That’s scary, especially to those of us in the lighting biz. Could that same slow adoption curve curse LED lighting?

We can’t wait thirty years for the widespread adoption of a technology that is ready now—ready to change the way we light streets and parking lots, grocery stores and offices, homes and even our cars.

So I’m talking about a revolution. The kind of revolution where we throw out preconceived notions, we cast aside things that don’t work anymore and we step into the brave, new, well-lit world.

That’s why we’re completely rethinking lighting.

It’s not about watts, it’s about lumens. It’s not about bulbs and fixtures. And it’s not about cost per bulb.

It’s about cost over lifetime and getting better light, for longer, with bigger bang for your buck.

It’s time to demand better, more efficient lighting. Don’t you agree?

Get Your Game Face on with Cree LEDs

It’s that time of year in North America – the leaves are beginning to fall, it is almost sweater weather and Saturday’s are all about college football. Given the theme of this month’s blog, it’s also the time of year when we think about energy efficiency. So, how does energy-efficiency, particularly LED lighting, relate to college football?  Allow us to elaborate.

Say you’re at home on your comfy couch watching your favorite team play a friendly game of pigskin on your high-definition TV. Or say you’re at the stadium, checking out live in-game action, stats and most importantly, the score. Well guess what – that vivid game day action may be powered by energy-efficient LEDs. From your LED-backlit HDTV to the high-res screen in the stadium, LEDs are a fan’s best friend.

In fact, in stadiums around the U.S. and the world,  high-brightness LEDs, particularly Cree’s Screen Master^® high-brightness LEDs, can be driven at a lower power to save energy and extend the lifetime of indoor and outdoor video screen and billboards. With industry-leading water-resistant packaging, Cree’s versatile 3-in-1 LEDs feature superior color quality and contrast, as well as the high-intensity output and wide viewing angles needed for optimal fan viewing.

If you’re a University of Michigan Wolverine fan, you might have noticed the newly upgraded scoreboards in “The Big House.” The largest stadium in the United States, The Big House consistently boasts game day crowds of more than 100,000 fans.

Well those new scoreboards are courtesy of Lighthouse Technologies and feature more than three million Cree Screen Master CLV6A LEDs in these state-of-the-art LED video displays and scoreboards. Positioned in each of the end zones, these massive high-resolution LED video boards are 40 percent larger than the previous system, providing in-game broadcast capability, instant replay, animation and dynamic promotional content in vivid color and ultra-sharp detail – all while saving energy.

And the University of Michigan isn’t the only one getting in on this high-bright action. The American Airlines Center, the Dallas home to both the NBA’s Mavericks and NHL’s Stars, installed 25 Lighthouse LED video screens as part of a large-scale renovation project in 2010. It even included the first 1080×1920 high-definition video screen in any NBA or NHL facility.

So whether you’re enjoying game day updates at home or at the stadium, don’t forget that the high-resolution action is being brought to you thanks to high-quality, high-performing Cree LEDs.

Bye Bye Binning, Hello EasyWhite: How Cree’s EasyWhite technology simplifies designing with LEDs

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy.

Halloween is quickly approaching…the one time of year where it’s completely appropriate to dress up as your favorite SpongeBob characters and scare yourself silly with horror movies and haunted houses. One thing that’s not okay this Halloween? Being scared of LEDs.

For too long, lighting manufacturers and designers have been spooked by LEDs. Sure, hearing the terms black body locus, flux and ANSI (what?!) are enough to make even the toughest of us shake in our stylish yet affordable boots.  One of the most bloodcurdling words to LED-phobes? Binning.

More than two years ago, thanks to EasyWhite technology, Cree removed the evil-ness of binning, which can simplify LED system design and improve LED-to-LED color consistency.

Before EasyWhite, lighting and fixture manufacturers had to play “mad scientist” and manually mix multiple LED bins to achieve the desired color consistency using recipes. Not only can this be complicated and time-consuming, sometimes it’s just plain impractical. Like when you’re designing those tiny MR-16 bulbs (track lighting) where you just can’t cram multiple LEDs into that small form factor to get that ‘just right’ color.  

With EasyWhite, all you, Mr.-or-Ms.-Lighting-Designer, need to know is what color temperature (2700K, 3500K, etc.) and light output you want…and voila! Not at all scary, right?

The following Cree LEDs are currently available with EasyWhite color mixing technology: XLamp XM-L, MC-E, MT-G (perfect for that MR-16 bulb!) and MP-L LEDs (directional lighting), the easy-to-use CXA2011 LED array and the LMR4 LED module, which is hands-down, the easiest way to design with LEDs.  For even more information on Cree’s EasyWhite technology, check out http://www.cree.com/xlamp/easywhite.asp.

At Cree, we’re constantly trying to remove the obstacles to using LEDs to create more energy-efficient fixtures.  We believe the fewer challenges associated with LED-based fixtures, the more widespread the adoption of LED technology…which is a win-win for everyone.

So this Halloween, as you go door-to-door for sweet treats, you can be rest assured that Cree has taken the fear out of LEDs.

Energy-Saving Surprises at Gas Stations

Cree is celebrating Energy Awareness Month with a series of blog posts about ways Cree and our products are helping save energy. Today’s guest post comes from Chris Ruud, president of Ruud Lighting, Inc., a Cree company.

There has been and will continue to be major growth in consumer interest in green cars – hybrids, clean diesel, plug-in hybrids and pure electric – according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 US Green Automotive Study. That same study also shows that 10 percent of sales by 2016 will come from vehicles with these fuel-efficient technologies.

This is great news. However, that four-fold increase in sales numbers compared to 2010 numbers still means that there will be millions upon millions of traditional, combustion engines cars out on the roads that need petrol (gas, diesel) fuel.

A great many of us will probably be counted among the millions that haven’t made the switch to hybrid or electric vehicles, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing our part to conserve energy. If you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably installed or considered installing LED lighting (one of the most energy efficient lighting sources on the market) and you have probably adopted at least one of the countless other energy savings initiatives recommended by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The same holds true for petroleum stations. Yes, gas stations may represent energy consumption in your mind, but station owners all across the country already have and are continuing to take steps to help the environment. This market was an early adopter of LED lighting as a standard and it is truly transforming the industry. While still serving a need for energy consumption, station owners are realizing that they can achieve significant energy cost savings by retrofitting the lighting with energy-efficient BetaLED luminaires and other Cree LED lighting products.

BetaLED lights illuminate this gas station in Farmington, CA.

With a reduction in energy consumption in island canopy lighting reaching an astounding 80 percent at some installations and a payback realized in just three years, station owners are taking the lead in creating a sustainable future in this market. And with more than 150,000 gas stations around the country, the opportunity is there for some serious energy savings.

Energy savings isn’t the only reason for the installations and retrofits. Imagine it is late at night, you are low on fuel and need to fill up. Ahead, you see signs for a few filling stations. Which one would you choose?

33 THE EDGE canopy fixtures from BetaLED were installed at this gas station in Plano, Texas, helping reduce energy costs from lighting by 31 percent.

If you’re anything like me, I’m choosing the one that looks like the one on the right – the one that is well lit. Thanks to BetaLED and Cree, this station and others across the country have sustainable illumination that creates a safe and inviting atmosphere.

Making solar panels more efficient with Silicon Carbide Schottky Diodes

We’ve all been told to be more aware of our exposure to the sun…that the sun’s rays are damaging. So it’s weird, sort of, when you consider that for centuries, countless civilizations have looked to the sun as a symbol of power and strength.

We get a little excited about a renewed fascination with the sun because we see opportunity. Opportunity to harness the sun’s strength to power our electronics. And because solar panels themselves are pretty complex feats of engineering, that’s where we come in.

As solar panels become more and more commonplace, the design considerations for converting light into electricity must focus on increasing energy efficiency. At Cree, we like to think that we’ve become the “ray of solar power efficiency” through our development of the silicon carbide (SiC) Schottky diodes that increase the conversion efficiency of solar energy.

Yes, we’re getting super technical, but this is actually pretty “hot” stuff.

First, let’s go through the basics: Solar panels are designed to absorb the sun’s energy and convert it to a positive DC voltage, which varies with the intensity of the sun’s rays to which the panels are exposed. That voltage is raised (or “boosted”) to a fixed DC voltage by means of a boost converter circuit either at the solar panel itself, or in the first phase of the power inverter, which takes the fixed DC voltage from the panel and converts it to a usable AC voltage at a fixed frequency. Conventional silicon Schottky diodes, when used for both the boost phase and in the inverter circuitry, typically contribute to an overall inverter efficiency of around 96 percent, due to a phenomenon known as switching loss (i.e., the circuit “wastes” about 4 percent of the energy produced by the solar panel in converting it to AC power).

Now that you’ve got that down…let us reiterate, conventional silicon diodes are 96 percent efficient. That’s pretty good, but…

If you use Cree’s SiC Schottky diodes, the inverter circuit operates at significantly higher frequencies, and virtually eliminates these diode switching losses, which has the effect of dramatically improving the overall inverter’s energy efficiency. This more efficient design enables more of the energy from the solar panels to get converted to usable electricity. With Cree SiC devices, the inverter’s average efficiency can be boosted by 2 percent, representing a 25 percent reduction in inverter losses. And when you’re making usable energy—every percent increase in efficiency counts.

So now you know enough be a little dangerous about solar panels and Schottky diodes. But don’t forget your sunscreen because while more sunlight makes a happy solar panel, it can also make for miserable sunburn.