LED Lighting Fixtures raises $ 16,5M to market energy efficient LED products

(LLF), which develops and markets the first and only viable light fixtures for general illumination from LED light sources, today announced that it has raised $16.5 million in an equity financing round which was lead by Digital Power Capital LLC, a Wexford Capital fund. LLF plans to use the proceeds to significantly expand its product line and accelerate research and development efforts.
Mark Mills, Founding Partner of Digital Power Capital, said, "We are deeply impressed with the comprehensive intellectual property, in addition to the technology savvy and remarkably capable team at LLF. Our fund is interested in companies that are leaders of change for power conversion in the 21st century, especially where emerging technologies provide both efficiency and inherently superior qualities. LLF is clearly at the epicenter of this transformation and will likely change the lighting industry."
According to Mike Rogers, LLF's President, "We are thrilled by the market acceptance of our product and the strong demand that we are seeing. With the close of our financing round, we expect to launch new products early next year that will include a four-inch downlight as well as a recessed architectural lay-in fixture that will be suitable for commercial and office environments."

LED Lighting Fixtures Awarded Grand Prize in Worldwide Lighting Competition

LED Lighting Fixtures, Inc. (LLF) today announced that it has won the Grand Prize for the 2007 Lighting for Tomorrow solid state lighting (SSL) competition. The contest is organized by the American Lighting Association, the U.S. Department of Energy (represented by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and the Consortium of Energy Efficiency.

Forty-five fixtures were evaluated by a panel of experts on the basis of energy efficiency, overall lighting quality, aesthetic appearance and innovation. LLF's LR6 product was judged to be the best. All finalists in the competition were tested by independent labs under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy. LLF's six-inch downlight delivered 600 lumens of light operating at 11 watts, with a color rendering index (CRI) measured at 95.

Dr. Steve DenBaars, Professor of Materials and Co-Director of the Solid State Lighting & Energy Center at University of California-Santa Barbara and a judge in the 2007 Lighting for Tomorrow competition said, "This competition places a high priority on energy efficiency, but not at the expense of fixture appearance or lighting quality. We were very impressed with the LR6 product as it offers the highest efficacy for any downlight product on the market and has the appearance of incandescent lamps typically used in residential downlights while using less than one-fifth the power consumption. This product platform has the potential to save US consumers billions of dollars in energy costs."

World's Top Sustainable Stocks: 2007 SB20

20 Companies Changing the World for the Better
SustainableBusiness.com today announced its 2007 Sustainable Business 20 (SB20) List: The World's Top Sustainable Stocks. The SB20 list, in its sixth year, consists of 20 public companies that are having an important impact on creating an environmentally sustainable society.

The list is presented in the Progressive Investor newsletter, published by SustainableBusiness.com, which tracks sustainable stocks.

"Our goal is to create a list that showcases public companies that, over the past year, have made substantial progress in either greening their internal operations or growing a business based on an important green technology, says Rona Fried, Ph.D., SustainableBusiness.com CEO and Editor of Progressive Investor.

To choose the 20 companies, SustainableBusiness.com partnered with KLD Research & Analytics, which provided a preliminary universe of 50 global companies with strong "green" initiatives and solid financials. KLD also served as a judge along with five leading green investment analysts to decide on the final list.

Energy Efficiency/Renewable Energy

This year, energy efficiency took center stage. Efficiency offers the least expensive, best economic returns, and most dramatic ways to reduce greenhouse emissions, simply by reducing energy consumption in the first place.

Comverge energy-management technologies save enormous amounts of energy by cutting peak demand, while keeping the filthiest fossil fuel plants off-line. Philips has been snapping up market share in LED lighting, advocating for and preparing to stop producing inefficient incandescents. Fuel Tech's technology cleans up the dirtiest fossil fuel plants, and Novozymes, "green chemicals" are keys to industrial efficiency and cellulosic biofuels.

REC is the world's most vertically integrated solar company; First Solar is the first public company to produce high volume, low cost thin film solar. Vestas, the world's premier wind company, has maintained its leadership position despite heavy competition. Ormat is the world geothermal leader, and Schmack Biogas is the world's leading biogas plant manufacturer, turning organic wastes into electricity, heat or fuels.

Green Building

For Land Securities, the UK's largest property owner, all new buildings meet green building standards, while it works to incorporate gray water, rainwater harvesting, FSC-certified wood, and Fair Trade/ Organic foods company-wide.

Interface continues its climb up "Mount Sustainability," innovating in the materials and processes used to make carpet tiles. Furniture maker Herman Miller, another stalwart sustainability leader, is 63% on its way to achieving its goal of Zero Ecological Footprint by 2020.

Consumer Products

Canon is making its products smaller and lighter, and has an aggressive target of cutting C02 emissions by 50% by 2010. Nike is using green design principles to transform its products, root out waste and toxics, and plans to be carbon neutral by 2015.

Natural Foods/ Natural Products

Groupe Danone, the world's largest dairy company, is converting more to organic dairy, sustainable agriculture. Its groundbreaking joint venture, Grameen Danone Foods, will create hundreds of jobs by manufacturing nutritionally dense, basic foods -- run on solar and biogas -- to low income populations in Bangladesh. It's a model for 50 plants in India over the next 10 years.

The world's largest retailer of organic/ natural products, Whole Foods, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, the leader in Fair Trade/ Organic coffee, have been on the SB20 since inception. They are exemplary models all around, and are largely responsible for the mainstreaming of natural foods/ sustainable coffee. Both companies are climate neutral.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, with over 600 restaurants, is making waves in the world of fast food by serving free range meats and integrating organic ingredients into its menus.

The SB20 List for 2007 - Alphabetical Order

Best Water Technology (Vienna: BWT.VI) (Austria)
Canon (Japan)
Comverge (USA)
Chipotle Mexican Grill (USA)
First Solar (USA)
Fuel Tech (USA)
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (USA)
Groupe Danone (DANO.PA) Netherlands
Herman Miller (USA)
Interface (USA)
Land Securities Britain
NIKE, Inc. (USA)
Novozymes (Copenhagen: NZYM.CO) Denmark
Ormat Technologies (USA)
Precious Woods Switzerland
Renewable Energy Corp - REC Norway
Royal Philips Electronics NV Netherlands
Schmack Biogas AG (Germany: SB1B.DE) Germany
Vestas (Copenhagen: VWS.CO) Denmark
Whole Foods Market (USA)

Honorable Mention:
Google, Inc.

LED Lighting Fixtures Receives First Patent

Patent Covers Innovative Technology for Creating White Light.
LED Lighting Fixtures, Inc. (LLF) today announced that the U.S. Patent Office has issued LLF's first patent # 7,213,940. The '940 patent titled Lighting Device and Lighting Method, covers a unique approach for LEDs to create white light. The LED industry typically produces white light by either coating true blue LEDs with a YAG phosphor or combining red, green and blue LEDs. LLF uses a new and distinctive approach described in the '940 patent to deliver the high efficacy and excellent color quality found in all of LLF's products.
Tony van de Ven, an LLF founder and co-inventor, said, "The '940 patent covers our core technology and we are thrilled that our unique methods are now protected in the United States. Our approach to white light is very elegant and allows us to use any LED chip source or package available in the industry.
LLF's technology will deliver the first high volume, energy efficient lighting products to the market and our fixtures should outperform all conventional sources, including compact fluorescent bulbs."
LLF is demonstrating its LR6 products and a new four-inch downlight product called LR4 at the 2007 Lightfair International Trade Show held at the Javits Convention Center in New York City beginning today through May 10, 2007 in booth number 2921. LLF is also displaying two new commercial prototype lights at Lightfair 2007.

LED Lighting Fixtures, Inc. (LLF) is a privately held company headquartered near Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption and evolution of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) into high volume general lighting applications so that consumers can realize lower energy and maintenance costs. LED lighting is significant as it is expected to provide decades of lifetime under normal operation, and it uses a fraction of the power required for traditional lighting solutions. For more information about LED Lighting Fixtures, Inc., please visit our website at http://www.LLFinc.com