Due to the significance of commercial and residential lighting energy use and the need to explore long-term energy savings opportunities for member programs, CEE turned its focus to lighting-efficiency research during a recent workshop.

The event was held Jan. 16 in Long Beach, Calif., one day prior to CEE’s Program Meeting.

There were two goals – one specific and one general – for the workshop:

1) Provide useful input to those involved in developing the lighting research agenda for the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program

2) Initiate discussion with all lighting stakeholders about the efficient use of limited research funds

Prior to the workshop, CEE gathered information about the lighting research projects and goals of 20 organizations from the above groups. This information was compiled into a summary-type report and distributed to the participants. The strategy behind this report was to create a catalog of lighting research programs to identify gaps and other areas of importance.

“We wanted to provide a forum for the organizations involved in efficient lighting research to discuss what research areas were being covered, where the opportunities for collaboration lay and how duplication of effort could be avoided,” said CEE Program Associate Susan Loucks, who co-chaired the workshop with Senior Program Manager Rebecca Foster.

“We found that a great deal of the research about efficient lighting was difficult to access and use, and we want to further engage the group on that issue.”

Michael Seaman of the California Energy Commission unveiled plans to work with the California Lighting Technology Center to host biannual meetings – one on the west coast, one in the east – that would share lighting research.

A planning committee made up of CEE workshop participants will help create the agendas for these meetings.

For further information, contact Susan Loucks at 617-589-3949, ext. 205.

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