BRUSSELS, Belgium — [Editor's Note: This article was updated February 5, 2010, with a comment provided by Osram.]

A dozen lighting major lighting manufacturers -- including Philips, Osram, Infineon Technologies, Cooper Lighting and Trilux -- are banding together to develop specifications for the standardization of LED light engines.

The new international consortium, called Zhaga, announced yesterday that it is forming and plans to conduct its first major meeting in March.

The group seeks to help speed industry innovation and adoption of the LED technology -- and prevent market fragmentation that is likely to result from incompatible light engines. An LED light engine, the group's literature explains, is "an LED module with defined interfaces that do not depend on the type of LED technology that is used inside the light engine."

The organization proposes to "standardize only what is necessary to enable the interchangeability of light engines from different manufacturers or of different light engine versions of the same supplier." So, for example, regarding dimming, "the control interface can specify the required dimming level, not the dimming method."

The 12 member firms in the group thus far are:


Use of high-efficiency lighting can go a long way toward curbing emissions as well as energy costs, as Matthias Grossmann and Jean-Paul Michel, the CFOs of Siemens Financial Services Inc. and Osram Sylvania Inc. respectively, noted in a recent article on GreenerBuildings.com. In the U.S. alone, lighting accounts for 30 percent of the electricity costs in commercial buildings -- about $37 billion in expenses.

"As a leading manufacturer in all stages of the LED value chain, Osram is committed to promote the development of interface standards for LED technology," said Osram Director Central System Electronics Franz Bernitz in a statement emailed to GreenerBuildings.com. "Interchangeability between products made by different manufacturers is a basic requirement to accelerate market penetration and prevent market fragmentation. In combination with classic technologies our LED portfolio of products, systems and solutions will increase energy savings for lighting by up to 60 percent. Zhaga therefore represents a major contribution to climate protection."

Image courtesy of Zhaga.