NPR: The US Department of Energy is offering $10 million to the first individual or company to develop an energy-efficient LED replacement for the standard 60-watt incandescent bulb.
DOE lighting program manager James Brodrick discusses the L Prize with NPR, and what makes a better bulb.
The prize idea might sound good, but banning candescent light bulbs that people want to use is going to leave a lucrative market for new types of energy efficient bulbs anyway.
This X-prize idea is a variation of the notion
“Let’s stimulate manufacturers to only make energy efficient products, so that there are energy and emission savings, and people save money at the same time!”
Unfortunately, in some areas there are performance, appearance, construction and price advantages to existing products.
To say that “efficient versions remain allowed” is to miss the point. When energy saving transistors arrived, energy using radio tubes weren’t banned: They were chosen less by consumers anyway.
Efficiency and money savings should carry their own reward, otherwise there is something wrong with the efficient products.