Lighting changes will save energy

San Jose Mercury News

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Clean-tech venture capitalists have taken a shine to Silicon Valley makers of LEDs and other bright lights, seeing a growing potential for these semiconductor-based light sources in streetlights and parking lots, in concert venues and gymnasiums.

And, soon, in your home.

According to the Cleantech Group, a San Francisco researcher and conference organizer, venture-capital investments into lighting technologies reached $100 million in 2008’s first quarter. That ranked behind only biofuel and solar among clean-tech categories.

“The way we light things today uses 25 percent of our energy in the United States,” said Alain Harrus, a partner at Crosslink Capital, a San Francisco venture firm with investments in two lighting companies, Intematix of Fremont, Calif., and Luxim of Sunnyvale, Calif. “The opportunity there is to switch to a much more efficient way of using the electricity.”

Most consumers know LEDs as the twinkles on their Christmas trees, the numbers on their calculators, the source of light on their cell phones. But they’re increasingly found in televisions, medical devices and streetlights. Some suspect they’ll soon be used in new homes.

Several Silicon Valley companies — BridgeLux in Sunnyvale, Osram Opto Semiconductor in Santa Clara and Luxim in Sunnyvale — have either gotten major VC funding recently or have spoken publicly about new developments in solid-state lighting.

Investors are trying to find products that use less energy but do the job as well as existing sources.

Or better, said Tony McGettigan, the chief executive of Luxim.

“Edison’s invention to banish the night was one of the most important inventions of the last century,” he said. “But the light sources of today aren’t exactly doing what you want them to do.”

Governments are working to eliminate incandescent bulbs, which are inefficient energy hogs. A bill in California’s Assembly to ban the bulbs failed in 2007, but the state has mandated improved lighting efficiency. And the energy bill signed by President Bush late last year requires a nationwide boost in efficiency, which most see as the end of incandescents in the United States.