Do you have an idea for a light that can deliver more than 150 lumens per watt? The U.S. Department of Energy may have up to $20 million in cash for you, if you do.

The DOE is ready to take submissions for the L-Prize, a competition to encourage new technology along the lines of DARPA’s contests promoting advances in various areas of defense research. These sorts of prizes have proved very effective in the past, as far back as the Longitude Prize in 1714.

My only question for the DOE on this one is why them seem to have limited contestants to established lighting manufacturers. Even if that isn’t the case, all the paperwork refers to contestants as ‘manufacturers.’ I think that the DOE may unintentionally be excluding academic researchers and other participants. These prizes seem to work best when anyone can give it a go. Consider the X-Prize — sure, a professional won, but amateurs added some innovation to the field.

I have high hopes for the L-Prize. The prize is set high enough that I bet plenty of researchers will want to get in on the contest and I’m willing to bet that some of them find excellent solutions to the question of lighting efficiency.

Photo — Marta P.