The workshop, co-sponsored by DOE and the Illuminating Engineering Society, drew lighting experts from around the world to San Diego.
April 30, 2020
minute read time
The 2020 Lighting R&D Workshop, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Illuminating Engineering Society, drew lighting experts from around the world to San Diego. The annual event is a cornerstone of DOE's Lighting R&D Program planning.
With expanded tracks, more than 70 speakers, and nearly 60 posters displaying innovative research, the 2020 workshop offered a broad mix of perspectives and reflected an emphasis on new frontiers in lighting. The diverse speakers and attendees included lighting scientists, manufacturers, engineers, contractors, architects, academics, distributors, standards developers, and DOE national lab researchers.
Attendees shared information, ideas, data, and perspectives on what kind of research is needed to unlock next-generation lighting performance and energy savings. The emphasis was on bridging the gap between the technology’s promise and today’s reality, and identifying the challenges that must be overcome in order to translate R&D into application.
The Materials Research and Product Innovation track, for example, featured a joint LED/OLED discussion on advances in light extraction, plus an intriguing roundup of product innovations and advanced manufacturing concepts. The Lighting Systems and Building Integration track examined the challenges of integrating advanced connected lighting systems into buildings, as well as the potential of such systems to provide grid services and to be incorporated into grid-interactive efficient buildings.
The exchange of ideas and discussion cultivated by this workshop are crucial to ongoing energy savings in solid-state lighting (SSL). The next generation of energy savings from SSL will come from improving lighting application efficiency (LAE), which characterizes the efficient delivery of light from the light source to the lighted task, and was a hot topic at the workshop. Improvements in LAE can deliver substantial energy savings by enabling the more-precise delivery of more-suitable light at the appropriate time. A new LAE framework needs to be developed in order to understand and quantify these benefits to drive further innovations for energy savings.
DOE will continue to work with stakeholders to achieve next-level energy savings as well as new frontiers in lighting. To learn more, view the presentations from the DOE Lighting R&D workshop and download the latest edition of the DOE Lighting R&D Opportunities document.
Dr. Brian Walker
Dr. Brian Walker has worked for more than 15 years advancing sustainability through technology and policy. He is the program manager for emerging technologies in the U.S.. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office.
Prior to this role, Brian managed a portfolio of strategic analysis projects. Along with partners, he examined industrial energy use, global supply chains, and factors driving asset valuation. He was an author of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, and he served as the U.S. representative to the Energy Efficiency Working Party at the International Energy Agency.
Most immediately, Brian was the technology manager for building controls and grid-edge decarbonization. As manager for solid-state lighting he helped develop the recent L-Prize, which has drawn new entrants and approaches to lighting, from concepts to prototypes to manufacturing and deployment.
Before joining DOE, Brian invented new materials, built devices, and studied the physics of sustainable energy at the University of Cambridge. He has a B.A. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his advisor won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Brian lives with his wife and children in Virginia.