The Lighting Prize (L-Prize) is designed to advance the U.S. clean energy economy for next-generation LED lighting, encouraging innovators and researchers to engage in advanced lighting system development that leads to transformative designs, products, and impact. The L-Prize will reward innovations that move rapidly to improve lighting performance, resulting in energy, carbon, and cost savings for American businesses and consumers.
The first Lighting Prize was awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2011, recognizing a high-efficiency LED replacement for the traditional 60-watt A19 incandescent bulb. Today, commercially available LED lights are competitive with all other lighting technologies, but the full technical and application potential of solid-state lighting (SSL) still far exceeds today’s products. Advanced interoperable lighting systems have the potential to better manage lighting energy use, integrate with other building systems, streamline maintenance and operations, and even respond to electric grid signals, increasing the value and resiliency of buildings. The L-Prize, a successor to the first Lighting Prize, seeks to unlock the additional potential to combine high-luminaire efficacy with exceptional lighting quality, data-driven control and functionality, innovative design, construction, and grid flexibility for the future of illumination in commercial and institutional buildings. In addition all of the technical areas in the L-Prize carry with them an overarching commitment to driving equity, accessibility, and resilience in the design and deployment of luminaires and connected systems.
The L-Prize targets commercial sector lighting, which accounts for about 56% of national lighting energy use and challenges lighting innovators to develop solid-state lighting (SSL) systems with breakthrough lighting energy efficiency, quality, functionality, and sustainability. SSL technology has the potential to bring widespread deployment of lighting products with exceptional energy efficiency, connectivity, control capabilities, and visual quality that are affordable and accessible to a wide range of businesses and consumers.
DOE’s Building Technologies Office invites lighting innovators to participate in this new competition to bring tomorrow’s lighting into today.
Winning systems must demonstrate exceptional achievement across six distinct categories. Through the challenging criteria within these categories, the competition can directly influence the equity, accessibility, and resilience benefits of advanced lighting systems.
Prize Structure
The L-Prize consists of three distinct phases that will award a total of up to $12.2 million.
The Concept Phase invited innovative concept proposals from potential competitors. COMPLETE
The Prototype Phase invited prototype products, emphasizing technological innovation and presenting the opportunity and the challenge to think outside standard forms, materials, and price points of commercially available luminaires. COMPLETE
The Manufacturing and Installation Phase will reward production and installation of real products meeting the L-Prize technical requirements.
Participation in the first two phases is not required to be eligible for the final phase, Manufacturing and Installation.
Guidelines
Please review the official rulesfor the complete application process and instructions for competing.
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The L-Prize M&I Phase Submission and Evaluation Plans provide submission instructions and detailed information about how entries will be evaluated. The Submission and Evaluation Plan for the Connected Systems Track has recently been revised to:
Clarify the number of sensing/communication modules to be submitted
Clarify that the BACnet interface will only be scanned if the competitor claims the optional points for the BACnet interface
Clarify acceptable methods for automatic notifications of system faults.
The revised Connected Systems Track Submission and Evaluation Plan and the Luminaire Track Submission and Evaluation Plan can be found at the links below.
Expression of Interest forms are due October 1, 2024, for the L-Prize Manufacturing and Installation (M&I) Phase. The Expression of Interest form is a required step in the M&I Phase entry process that will provide DOE with information needed to plan accordingly around the expected number of entries. Please contact with any questions about the Expression of Interest form.
To enter: Make sure you’re registered on the L-Prize HeroX platform. Click on “Solve this Challenge” and accept the competitor agreement in order to access the full capabilities of the website. Then click on “Begin Entry” and complete the Expression of Interest form, providing a brief description of your intended luminaire or connected system. You do not need to have your complete submission package ready at this time.
More information: The M&I Phase has two tracks, one for luminaires and the other for connected systems, and up to four winners will split a prize pool of $10 million. The Intent to Submit form is due April 1, 2025. The complete submission package for the M&I Phase will be due in August 2025. Check out the L-Prize Official Rules for more details.
Submission and Evaluation Plans are now available for both tracks of the L-Prize Manufacturing and Installation (M&I) Phase. These documents provide submission instructions and detailed information about how entries will be evaluated, for both the Luminaire Track and Connected Systems Track, and can be found at the links below:
The official L-Prize rules document has been posted with revisions noted in the Modifications Summary on p. 2. Download the updated rules document at https://www.herox.com/LPrize/resource/725.
The L-Prize is compiling a resource list to facilitate connections between potential entrants and supporting entities for the Manufacturing & Installation (M&I) Phase of the competition, which is currently open. For the M&I Phase, entrants must document the installation of their lighting solution in a real commercial building. While some entrants may prefer to identify their own installation sites, others may find it helpful to use the resource list to identify potential installation partners or host-sites.
Potential competitors, installation partners, or host-sites interested in supporting an entrant can find out more about the resource list and response form at https://www.herox.com/LPrize/resource/1840.
