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.

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 Additionally, outdated and low-quality exterior lighting, characterized by poor color, inappropriate light distribution, and inadequate light levels, has been linked to increased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.

Interior lighting remains a large component of electricity use in non-residential buildings. In California, electric lighting has both a direct effect on peak load, and an indirect effect by increasing cooling requirements during summer peak hours. Effective daylighting combined with electric lighting dimming controls can directly offset electric lighting energy by reducing lighting levels when necessary to reduce the load on the cooling system.

Traditional outdoor lighting technologies operate at full power throughout the night, even when areas are vacant.  This extra load, energy waste and light pollution can be averted by updating the lighting system with energy-efficient light sources and lighting controls.  By installing these technologies, adaptive lighting strategies can be implemented that provide the right amount of light when and where it is needed.  

The Consortium for Energy Efficiency in Non-Residential Buildings (The Consortium), supported by the National Council for Science and Technology and Secretary of Energy in Mexico, is focused on reducing electricity demand in Mexico’s non-residential buildings through collaborative efforts with industry, government and universities.  Specifically, the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, with assistance from UC Davis, is funded to implement an energy efficiency laboratory featuring lighting and air conditioning technologies for non-residential buildings.