Narrator: LEDs have made remarkable progress in the past decade and gained a strong foothold in the US marketplace. LEDs have also transformed the lighting industry as the nation has moved away from century-old technologies.

John Delany, Hubbell Lighting: The LED industry has changed dramatically in the last two years. The efficacy of the products has dramatically increased. The pricing obviously has dramatically decreased.

Susanne Seitinger, Philips Lighting: What's really exciting about it is that we can see it in our world. We can see people using it in their homes, in their workplaces, outdoors.

Chris Brown, Wiedenbach Brown: Five years ago I sold light bulbs. I was in the light-bulb business. Today I'm in the semiconductor business.

Jose Sierra, Lighting Science Group: Innovation is very important. This technology is changing on a daily basis.

James Brodrick, Lighting Program Manager, U.S. Department of Energy: We're halfway there in that there are many products coming out on the market, and they're very good, and there's a lot of buzz and sensationalism. But it's very early. We're still not to the full peak potential that solid-state lighting can offer as far as lighting performance and efficiency.

Narrator: Without LED as a lighting alternative, energy usage for US lighting would have continued to climb in coming years. With LED as our main lighting technology, if DOE targets are met, annual energy use will show a reduction of about 5.1 quads by 2035, which represents a 75% reduction in lighting-energy consumption for the nation. From 2015 to 2035, energy savings would add up to nearly $630 billion in avoided energy costs.

Mark Hand, Acuity Brands Lighting: LED technology is headed to become the dominant lamp source and light source for luminaires of the future.

Narrator: Realizing the full potential of solid-state lighting will require a concerted effort to overcome complex challenges that impact cost and limit the efficacy and performance of today's LED products.

James Brodrick: The full potential will require R&D breakthroughs.

Kevin Leadford, Acuity Brands Lighting: But we're going to dig in and try to understand all the things that we really value in lighting. Then we can apply that with the new technology and all its wonderful new attributes, and really take things to a new level.

Chips Chipalkatti, Dr. Chips Consulting LLC: To fully maximize the potential of LEDs, we need to go far beyond the bulb and use our imagination, use our creativity, to go to the next level.

Narrator: The US Department of Energy Solid-State Lighting Program supports competitive LED research and development.

Jay Montgomery, Veeco Instruments: The government plays a key role because it can push over the threshold those projects which wouldn't be funded independently by a company.

Eric Haugaard, Cree: DOE can actually fill in the gap and help things move at a faster pace than it naturally would for the benefit of faster deployment that's going to give us all the economic benefits.

Michael Krames, Arkesso LLC: New ideas that the person in a garage or university or a startup, who has something that can really have a big impact--

Jay Montgomery: And have the government look at those and say, hey, let's not make it a what-if. Let's actually put money there and see if it can actually produce the benefits that we see for solid-state light adoption.

Narrator: Nearly 250 solid-state lighting R&D projects funded by DOE since 2000 have resulted in more than 260 patents applied for or awarded and a huge industry footprint with millions of SSL products currently available that are based on at least some DOE-funded R&D. For a total SSL program investment of about $350 million, LED products have contributed to more than $2.8 billion in energy savings. DOE also supports lab testing and field demonstrations that identify and intercept technology problems early on, alerting manufacturers to needed improvements and putting detailed information into the hands of buyers. The result is a market feedback loop that increases the rate of technology improvement.

Steve Paolini, Telelumen: Probably the best thing about these conferences is the interactions that occur while we're here and the discussions.

Seth Coe-Sullivan, Luminit: It's absolutely worth our time participating in these forums, showing our leadership, but also understanding industry trends of our customers.

Brian Chemel, Digital Lumens: It's hard to imagine a group more technically sophisticated than the folks at the DOE and the associated national labs. And their voice and their viewpoint I think is critical.

Fred Maxik, Lighting Science Group: DOE has continue to foster the fundamental science. There are things that we in industry would never get to in terms of our system design, in terms of our raw materials, in terms of how we look at the world.

Narrator: Better light, new forms of light, a cleaner environment, and vastly lowered energy costs-- all part of a future lit by LED.