The US Department of Energy has announced Philips Lighting North America as the first winner of the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L Prize) competition. The contest challenged the lighting industry to develop superhigh-performance, energy-saving replacements for the common lightbulb. Philip’s winning energy-efficient alternative to the 60-W lightbulb cleared a high bar for performance and quality, passing product performance and lumen depreciation testing conducted by independent laboratories and field assessments performed by L Prize partners. DoE established the L Prize competition under the direction of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The contest’s guidelines state that two additional products may be recognized in the 60-W replacement category, and DoE received letters of intent to submit from two other companies: Lighting Science Group and GE Lighting. The competition is now closed to any further letters of intent or entries. Additional categories for the L Prize competition will be announced in the future. For more information, visit: www.lightingprize.org