Industry News

Philips and Berkeley Lab will work together to develop new technologies for the control of multiple building sub-systems such as lighting and temperature controls, and new building simulation tools for developing and evaluating effective energy control strategies.

Initial research will focus on optimizing the energy efficiency of indoor lighting through advanced integrated wireless lighting control systems that are responsive to people, events and external daylight levels. This will ensure energy is only used when and where needed and will not compromise the comfort of the building's inhabitants.

Global environment and energy concerns are at the heart of this joint research program that will last for the next two and a half years, to be carried out jointly at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, USA and independently at Philips Research in North America (Briarcliff Manor, New York) and Europe.

Conventional light sources and unmanaged lighting systems currently account for a significant proportion of wasted energy in buildings. With products such as its ActiLume adaptive fluorescent lighting system for offices, Philips is already a world leader in energy-managed lighting systems. The combination of Philips' advanced research and development in lighting, including solid state lighting controls, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's recognized expertise in energy-efficient building technologies will extend opportunities in energy efficient lighting to complete building energy management systems.

In view of the advanced knowledge base and implementation skills embodied in the partnership, practical results from the collaborative research are expected as early as the beginning of 2009, with commercialization of the developed concepts towards the end of 2009. Compared to unmanaged lighting and other energy consuming building systems, the anticipated energy savings achievable with these new solutions could be in excess of 75%.

"For Philips this partnership supports an important shift in our activities from energy efficient lighting towards complete energy efficient systems which can impact our ambitions in the global energy challenge," says Terry Doyle, Senior Vice President Philips Research.

"Through this open-innovation agreement with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory we believe that we can jointly make an important contribution to the development and deployment of 'net-zero energy' building solutions, opening up significant business opportunities for the future," says Helen Routh, general manager Philips Research North America.

"We are looking forward to working with the Philips team to develop new technologies for dramatically reducing building energy use and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions," said Arun Majumdar, Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Berkeley Lab. "There are tremendous opportunities to lower the environmental impact of buildings through the intelligent, real-time, automated control of energy use."

The joint research program will leverage Philips Lighting's knowledge of fluorescent and solid-state lighting controls, Philips Research's expertise in wireless communication systems and standards, and its understanding of ambient environments. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will bring its proven track record of contributions to energy efficient lighting in buildings, monitored demonstrations of high performance integrated building systems and links to state and federal energy agencies.