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LED lighting is increasingly popping up in warehouses and commercial facilities as part of energy retrofit projects, even though they are often thought to be too costly for commercial buildings. Energy use remains a significant cost for buildings and facility managers, so lighting retrofits are a great way to manage and control energy costs. "Energy efficiency retrofits […]

Help the Empire State Building shine brighter when you vote for the color of the LED lights. The historic building is letting voters choose the official standard colors for its new LED tower lights. Designed by Philips Color Kinetics, the new LED lighting system allows customized lighting from a palette of more than 16 million […]

State regulators on Wednesday approved a rate increase that will affect 600,000 customers in Missouri. Great Plains Energy, the parent company to Kansas City Power & Light, was granted $64 million of the $106 million requested. The increases varied among the utility’s three service areas. About half of the customers in the KCP&L territory will […]

You've heard of their benefits, but do you know enough about installing light emitting diodes (LED)? Unlike fluorescent lamps, LED light fixtures contain powerful LED light sources that include plastic lenses to reduce glare. And some light sources are already becoming too bright to look at directly. As LED technology continues to grow, fixture manufacturers still […]

In October 1962, scientist Dr. Nick Holonyak invented the first light emitting diode (LED). The light, unlike infrared lasers, is visible to the human eye, and has a higher efficiency compared to other lighting technologies. Fifty years later and LED is fast becoming popular among businesses for its low energy and maintenance costs. Holonyak, now […]

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system was designed 12 years ago to help architects, designers, and real estate firms “improve energy efficiency and increase the use of recycled materials and nontoxic paint into their projects.” The LEED rating system has since grown into a global standard and powerful  accomplishment. Right now […]

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy recently released their sixth annual state scorecard. The ACEEE measures states energy efficiency initiatives. The top states include Massachusetts, California, and Oregon. The three most improved states are Oklahoma (thanks to newly enacted natural gas efficiency programs), Montana, and South Carolina. States most in need of improvement include […]

The Swedish-based furniture chain recently announced a new green initiative  Ikea is phasing out sales of all lighting that is not LED-based by 2016 “in an effort to help customers save energy, reduce electricity bills, and cut carbon emissions.” Ikea is the first major home furnishing retailer with a U.S. presence to entirely banish less efficient […]

Google’s data center in Mayes County, Oklahoma will be running more efficiently soon. The search engine giant announced last week that it would buy wind energy from the Grand River Dam Authority to purchase energy. This will be the first time Google has partnered with a utility to buy renewable energy. The GRDA will provide […]