New research from California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) in collaboration with the Center for Mind and Brain has revealed that ambient lighting can play a critical role in how we recover from stress. Backed by Toyota Boshoku America, Seoul Semiconductor, and Color Kinetics, the study involved more than 100 participants undergoing a stressful social scenario—delivering a speech and performing math in front of masked judges in white coats. The team, led by  CLTC researcher Jae Yong Suk and Dr.

New testing at the California Lighting Technology Center highlights the potential of SunLike lighting as a strong alternative to traditional LEDs. The results show that this technology closely replicates natural sunlight, offering benefits in both energy efficiency and visual comfort. With its ability to enhance lighting quality while reducing power consumption, SunLike is emerging as a promising option for various applications.

With funding from the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, CLTC and partners are developing a cutting-edge, human-centered lighting system for the global market. This project focuses on improving lighting quality and user satisfaction in both private and open offices by testing and validating the performance of these new, advanced lighting technologies. 

Load flexibility—also known as demand flexibility—has the potential to be a significant, clean, and cost-effective resource for maintaining a reliable power grid, particularly as renewable energy becomes more prominent in California's energy mix. The California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) at UC Davis is conducting research to enhance load flexibility solutions for buildings, which are major contributors to the state's energy use and emissions.

At UC Davis, the California Lighting Technology Center is establishing “The Color Lab” in collaboration with the Center for Mind and Brain to explore the impact of discrete color spectra on stress, mood, and alertness.

CalNEXT is a statewide initiative to identify, test, and grow electric technologies and delivery methods to support California’s decarbonized future. CLTC is excited to be part of the CalNEXT team to support the evaluation of electric emerging technologies.

The California Lighting Technology Center is expanding its research capacity to lead a new effort demonstrating vehicle-to-building (V2B) mobile battery energy storage (MBES) as emergency power backup at a Caltrans’ facility in Oakland, California.

This $5.3M project is funded with $3M from the California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge Program (EPIC) Program and $2.3M in match funds from project partners.

The California Load Flexibility Research and Development Hub (CalFlexHub) brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts from numerous sectors—including industry, utilities, academia, manufacturers, and non-profits—to identify, evaluate, develop, fund, and demonstrate promising pre-commercial energy efficiency and distributed energy resource technologies that are flexible, interoperable, and grid-integrated.

The California Lighting Technology Center, in collaboration with Southern California Edison, RMS Energy Consulting LLC, and the California Energy Alliance, are establishing a working group of industry stakeholders to help develop recommendations that will simplify and clarify the nonresidential lighting and lighting controls language contained in the 2022 Title 24, Part 6 Building Energy Efficiency Standards.

In many communities, exterior lighting operates from early evening through early morning—times when renewable energy generation is minimal. Consequently, most exterior lighting relies on carbon-dense fossil fuels, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, poor air quality, water pollution, and land degradation. Additionally, outdated and low-quality exterior lighting, characterized by poor color, inappropriate light distribution, and inadequate light levels, has been linked to increased crime rates and reduced physical activity.