Great news for all DIY LED Grow Light builders, this is your chance to submit your LED product idea for demonstration and testing by your peers! Better hurry, your LED Lighting proposal must be received by close of business on April 16, 2007, electronic or hard copy submissions accepted.

To: Potential Manufacturing Participants in the Solid State Lighting Technology Demonstrations

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) invites your participation in an upcoming demonstration of solid state lighting (or light emitting diode, LED) technology for general illumination applications. White LEDs have continued their rapid technological advance, as reflected by a number of recent new product announcements. This project, which will include several demonstration sites and products, is intended to place newly commercial state of the art products into real world applications that will clearly demonstrate their performance and cost-effectiveness.

The planned approach seeks to establish several participant teams that will typically consist of a product manufacturer (or group of manufacturers, such as a collaboration between a chip maker and a fixture manufacturer), an energy efficiency organization/utility, a host site, and PNNL. The number of individual teams and demonstration projects will depend upon the suitability and attractiveness of proposals received, but we expect between two and five individual projects in the first round of demonstrations.

PNNL has already initiated a separate effort to identify other non-manufacturer team members; a partial listing of organizations expressing strong interest in participating is included as Attachment A to this letter. Note that potential host sites are intended to include both public and private sector organizations; we are currently working with the energy efficiency organizations listed to help identify private sector sites.

More details on participating in this opportunity can be found in the “Invitation to Participate” included as Attachment B. We are striving to streamline the overall process and minimize the submission burden on potential team members. Requested information is therefore brief and focuses on details that will allow evaluators to judge the credibility of proposals received. While there is no page length limit, we anticipate the requested information can be adequately addressed in ten pages or less. We expect this technology demonstration activity to span multiple years rather than being a one-time effort; future rounds of demonstrations are planned as federal funds are made available. In order to be considered for this first round, all manufacturer proposals to participate must be received no later than close of business on April 16, 2007. Proposals received after that date will not be considered.

Please direct all submitted materials or questions to me using the contact information provided below. Either electronic or hard copy submissions are acceptable.

Regards,

Bruce Kinzey
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
620 SW 5th Ave, Suite 810
Portland, OR 97212
T (503) 417-7564
F (503) 417-2175
Bruce.Kinzey@pnl.gov

Attachment A: Team Members Expressing Strong Participation Interest to Date
Utilities/Energy Efficiency Organizations
Southern California Edison
Pacific Gas and Electric
Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
Host Site Agencies*
Army
Navy
Air Force
Commerce
Environmental Protection Agency
Smithsonian Institute
Federal Aviation Administration
Treasury/Bureau of Engraving and Printing
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service
United States Postal Service
U.S. Forest Service

*All are Federal at present; private sector host sites (e.g., builders) will be identified by working through existing relationships of either utilities/energy efficiency organization team members or manufacturing participants.

Attachment B:

DOE Solid State Lighting Technology Demonstration Invitation for Lighting Equipment Manufacturer Participation March 15, 2007

I. PREFACE

The enclosed package describes a series of team agreements that the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) wishes to enter on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for the purpose of demonstrating advanced LED-based lighting systems for general illumination (see Section II Overview for a more detailed description of specific project activities). Rather than establishing procurement contracts among the parties involved, these teams are to take the form of working collaborations where each team member bears its own costs. Team members envisioned within each collaboration include DOE/PNNL, manufacturers of solid state lighting (SSL) products, energy efficiency organizations (or utilities), and owners of demonstration host sites. This particular package addresses the participation of manufacturing team members.

As the organization leading the activity, DOE/PNNL intends to identify products suitable for demonstration, assist in identifying and evaluating suitable host sites, provide organization of the overall activity, evaluate the results (both quantitative and qualitative), conduct product performance and life testing, and support subsequent project information dissemination. DOE intends for each of the other team members in a particular collaboration to make an essential contribution, subject to negotiation, as follows:

• Lighting Manufacturers (including teams of chip and fixture manufacturers) – donate products to be demonstrated, and at their option participate further in identification/selection of host sites and assisting in installation design;

• Energy Efficiency Organizations (or Utilities) – provide contacts with potential host site organizations, and assurances and support to host sites as needed to ensure that demonstrations proceed smoothly; provide crucial follow up promotional activities post-demonstration;

• Host site organizations – offer locations for product demonstration along with a willingness to participate in demonstration-related activities.

• To be determined – responsibility for any lighting design and installation services will be negotiated on a project specific basis.

The number of teams to be formed will be guided by the combination of suitable products available and host sites in which to demonstrate them, combined with available resources. Team members are not restricted to a single team; a large hosting organization might demonstrate products from more than one manufacturer or a single manufacturer might donate multiple products designed for different applications.

A key component of the intended agreement is that no procurement exists between PNNL and any of the team members. Each team member agrees to act in good faith towards the mutually desired end goal, but the universally advantageous outcome of achieving the goal is the primary motivation behind the team rather than the sale of its products or services. At the time each team is formed, roles will be clarified and documented in a Teaming Agreement.

PNNL is choosing this approach to minimize time required for project initiation. The other involved parties may enter into demonstration projects exclusive of PNNL as desired, however PNNL requests to be informed of any such agreement if established.

II. TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Introduction:

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) at Richland, Washington, is interested in receiving proposals for LED-based lighting systems specifically designed for residential and commercial general illumination applications. The Pacific Northwest Division of Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle) operates PNNL for DOE under Prime Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830 and is the legal entity issuing this Invitation for Participation (IFP). Lighting products will not be purchased by PNNL under any resulting agreement. The purpose of this Technology Demonstration is to facilitate the market introduction of LED-based products for general illumination which meet the intent of the technical guidelines described in Section III.

Program Overview:

A number of solid state lighting (or light-emitting diode, LED) products intended for general illumination applications appear poised for near-term commercialization that will offer significant improvements over conventional lighting technologies. The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is interested in facilitating commercialization of such LED technologies and promoting the energy and environmental benefits they promise.

DOE has asked PNNL to assemble and lead a Technology Demonstration project for this purpose. The intent of this project is to identify a limited number of advanced LED products either recently introduced or on the verge of commercialization that are available for installation and testing in various applications, and to find team member host sites where these products can be installed and their attributes clearly demonstrated. The results of demonstrations that are deemed a success will be widely publicized. Final project evaluation reports, to be written by PNNL, will be made publicly available soon after project completion. DOE is interested in working with team members and/or host site organizations with the interest and capability to follow up successful projects with either large scale purchases or promotion of featured products. In order to avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest, project participants will not be permitted to use any such reports to assert or imply the endorsement by DOE, PNNL, Battelle or the host site organization of their lighting products.

The project is intended to identify and assist in the early adoption of high performance products that are (or very soon will be) commercially available and that offer users real value through significant, rather than merely incremental, improvements over the current best competing products. Products chosen for demonstration will be selected based on their potential to demonstrate the advanced state of the art in LED technology, while being economically sound investments for the building owner/investor.

An important factor in determining the suitability of products for field demonstration is their expected commercial availability date. Manufacturers must stipulate that products intended for a field demonstration site will be commercially available within three months of the start of the project. Products not meeting this requirement will not be put into a field demonstration site, although they might be selected for individual demonstration with other prototypes, or put into a queue for site demonstration at a later date.

The overall project has six phases, some of which run concurrently:

1) Products to be demonstrated will be screened based on the contents of the submitted proposals;

2) Laboratory testing (both short- and longer-term) of samples of each product passing the screening will ensue to establish or verify important attributes of performance;

3) Host sites and team members will be identified to carry out the actual demonstration of products satisfying the selection criteria;

4) The products will be installed and the demonstrations carried out;

5) PNNL will conduct evaluations of the results, including energy and cost savings and related economic analyses, and compiling qualitative responses of host sites to the LED light source; and

6) Results of successful demonstrations will be widely publicized subject to the above restriction on endorsement. While no sales of demonstrated products is assured, it is expected that large-scale product purchases or promotions by demonstration team members will also occur at this stage for products that have sufficiently performed to buyers’ satisfaction.

DOE is interested in products that will be economically justifiable and that can eventually impact a large segment of the lighting market. Residential downlighting is one preferred application due to its prevalence in US homes and because the directional nature of LED illumination matches well with the needs of this application. Where a significant market exists, however, other proposed applications will be considered and every effort will be made to locate potential host sites in those application areas.

In cases where host site(s) are not identified for the intended application, manufacturers will be given an option to either select one of the other host sites identified by DOE/PNNL, or to withdraw their proposal from consideration. Manufacturing participants will also be encouraged to supply or participate in the actual installation design once host sites have been selected to ensure that their products are demonstrated in a manner taking full advantage of their attributes.

Finally, because LED technology for general illumination is relatively new, some specific products and application designs may not have existed prior to this demonstration. Issues such as future manufacturing capability and retail pricing may thus involve projections rather than actual market data. This situation underlies some of the information requirements in the proposal template in Section IV.

III. SELECTION CRITERIA

The stated goal of this activity is to identify state of the art LED products intended for general illumination that are or soon will be commercially available, and demonstrate them in applications where they are both cost effective and preferred by end-users over competing conventional technologies. The project will follow up with significant education and encouragement aimed to spur large scale sales of products successfully meeting the above criteria.

Because the range of attributes (e.g., levels of performance) that may offer value varies widely across potential applications, maximum flexibility is necessary in their specification. A further complication arises from the fact that altering one attribute in a given product often directly impacts another.

In general, DOE is interested in products that perform at least as well as those that would qualify for DOE’s draft Energy Star criteria, which can be found at http://energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=new_specs.ssl_luminaires .

The overarching priorities for selecting products for this demonstration project are performance, commercial availability, and economic value. In screening submitted product proposals, each of these factors is to be weighted equally when DOE evaluates their suitability for demonstration. That is, the performance of the product (both in energy and economic terms), its anticipated cost and commercial availability will each comprise a third of the evaluation for whether to pursue a given proposal. The subtopics within each of those priority categories are given below.

Performance evaluation factors (1/3)
Luminaire Efficacy
Color temperature (and chromaticity coordinates)
CRI
Light distribution pattern suitable for intended application
Luminaire suitable for intended application (e.g., method of thermal management)
Economic evaluation factors (1/3)
Fixture cost
Electricity usage
Expected life
Technology replaced
Warranty
Commercial availability evaluation factors (1/3)
Anticipated date of first product availability
Evidence supporting the availability of volume* manufacturing capacity
Intended market outlets

*volume estimates to be provided by proposers

In addition to the factors above, additional product features may offer increased attraction to potential buyers that enhance their marketability in particular applications. For example, such a feature would include dimming capability of the product in residential interior environments. Proposers will be provided an opportunity to note such additional features and will, in effect, be given “extra credit” for their perceived value.

Finally, particular applications may impose certain mandatory requirements on products that are not necessarily universal across all applications. An example here would be requirements placed on products (e.g., UL certification, applicable building codes) to be demonstrated in a production housing environment. All such requirements must be met by the product before it will be considered for demonstration in those applications.

IV. PROPOSAL TEMPLATE

The elements requested in each proposal have been kept to a minimum in order to ease
and expedite the submission process. In all cases, the information sought is just that necessary to identify noteworthy products and the appropriate applications for each. Additional product literature or future market impact forecasts are neither requested nor desired. A convincing, but concise argument is preferred over a detailed market analysis.

Each submitted proposal must include:

A. Application - the specific application(s) for which the product is intended, including the conventional technology(ies) that the product will replace. Include photos or graphics of both the luminaire and its installed appearance in the target application. Please also indicate whether you have a potential host site already identified.

B. Specifications Sheet - a completed specifications sheet (included in Section V) for the product and any supporting test data.

C. Economic Case - a concise economic argument for the product in its intended application. Include any assumptions necessary, such as hours/day of lighting system use and price of electricity.

D. Supplemental Technical Description (optional) – clarification of any apparent installation or other technical issues, such as means of adequate heat rejection, where they are not evident from the above information. Note that proposal evaluators are not looking to uncover proprietary design secrets but, rather, assurances that the product will reliably work in the application. This is also the section in which additional features of the product, e.g., dimming capability, can be noted.

E. Product Cost Projections - a description of the anticipated product cost at retail and/or wholesale at various quantities.

F. Production Capability - evidence to support plans for commercial availability, including a timeline for when commercial production is expected and the various market outlets through which the product is expected to be available.

Items E and F essentially comprise a summary business plan for each product that provides enough detail to judge the credibility of proposals received. These items are important to the desired follow up activity of promoting large scale purchases of successful products. It is neither the intent of this project to demonstrate products that no one will ultimately buy because they are too expensive, nor to provoke disappointment by demonstrating products that must be significantly back-ordered due to insufficient production capacity.

That said, precise values are less important than a sound strategy for pursuing them. All that the proposal evaluators will be looking for is an assurance that a credible plan exists to make the products available in sufficient quantities at a cost-effective price.

V. PRODUCT SPECIFICATION SHEET

For purposes of this demonstration project, the values of interest are primarily those of the finished luminaire rather than the component LED sources. If the luminaire has not been photometrically tested and only chip-level data are available, then a uniform average loss factor of 0.35 will be applied to the chip-level data(1) for purposes of estimating luminaire performance in the first phase screening. In any case, the source of data used must be provided for all reported values.

Value Data Source
Product Name/Identifier
Total Measured Light Output
(lumens)
Beam Angle
Measured Energy Use in “On” Mode
(Watts)
Confirmation That Energy Use in
Standby Mode is Zero (Yes/No)
Calculated Luminaire Efficacy
(lumens/Watt)
Typical Measured Operating Current
(mA)
LED Manufacturer’s Recommended
Maximum
Operating Current (mA)
LED Chip Used
(Manufacturer/Model)
Chromaticity Coordinates
X (or u’)
Y (or v’)
Correlated Color Temperature
(K)
Color Rendering Index
Power Factor

1 Average of luminaires tested to date by the Commercial Product Testing Program. So for example, a luminaire using a chip rated at 100 lumens/watt only achieves an average 35 lumens/watt out of the fixture when all thermal effects, power supply, and driver losses are taken into account.

VI. TIMELINE

All times consecutive. Dates shown are maximum allowable; demonstrations will proceed more quickly if possible.

Due Date for Responding to Solicitation: April 16, 2007
Initial Selection of Products for Demonstration Completed: May 1, 2007
Initial Product Samples Due to PNNL: June 1, 2007
Product Short Term Testing Completed by PNNL: July 2, 2007
Installations Initiated: August 1, 2007
Demonstration Evaluations Completed: February 1, 2008

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