TIANJIN, China, Feb. 26, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq:CREE), a leader in LED solid-state lighting components, today announced that the Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA) in China has joined the LED City(tm) program. The LED City program is an international initiative to promote and deploy energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) lighting. TEDA is the first city area in China to join a rapidly growing consortium of cities in evaluating and deploying LED lighting technology across their municipal infrastructures.
Over the past two years, TEDA partnered with Tianjin Polytechnic University in a large, student-produced LED street lighting project. Twenty graduate students, directed by Professor Pingjuan Niu, Ph.D., designed, produced and installed approximately 1,500 LED streetlights. These innovative LED fixtures were installed more than a year ago to illuminate 15 kilometers along the university's streets.
"On behalf of TEDA, I am excited to announce our participation in helping to advance the adoption of energy-efficient and environmentally sound LED lighting in China," noted Ai Yaming, TEDA vice chairman. "LED lighting not only reduces significantly the amount of energy we use for illumination, it also does not contain toxic materials such as mercury or lead. In addition to the energy and cost benefits, TEDA and the Tianjin Polytechnic University support the development and manufacturing of high-quality LED fixtures in our region for even greater economic benefit."
"Our students' work speaks for itself," said Niu, professor of the solid-state lighting R&D center at Tianjin Polytechnic University. "LED technology is the most important new development for energy and cost savings in the lighting industry. Our university, its students and TEDA are developing expertise in making the best quality LED lighting with the intent to help accelerate the adoption of LED lighting in China and to increase the economic opportunity for our region. We are especially proud of our initial successes and participation in the international LED City initiative with Cree."
"We are excited to launch the LED City program in China by welcoming TEDA as our newest participant," noted Chris James, Cree vice president of marketing. "The LED street lighting project at Tianjin Polytechnic University is impressive in scale and in the level of quality achieved by Dr. Niu and her students. We encourage other Chinese cities and universities to join with these innovators to help us work to significantly reduce the amount of energy used for lighting throughout the world and to accelerate the adoption of this new technology through innovative design and manufacturing here in China."
About LED City
The LED City is an expanding community of government and industry parties working to evaluate deploy and promote LED lighting technology across the full range of municipal infrastructure to:
* Save energy * Protect the environment * Reduce maintenance costs * Provide better light quality for improved visibility and safety
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 22 percent of electricity used in the U.S. powers lighting. In a world with soaring energy prices based on the availability and control of fossil fuels, and with growing concern about sustainability of the environment, a revolution in lighting is long overdue.
About Tianjin and Tianjin Economic Development Area
Tianjin is China's third largest city, an independent municipality with a population of 9.5 million that is a major commercial and industrial center as well as the biggest port in north China. About 137 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Beijing, Tianjin is situated at the confluence of five tributaries of the Haihe River, 50 km from the Gulf of Bohai. Tianjin is best known for its streetscapes of colonial-era buildings, a residue of its status as a Treaty Port after 1858. Now a center of multinational businesses concentrated in the new satellite city known as TEDA (Tianjin Economic Development Area), Tianjin has an extensive modern infrastructure, and is known for the high quality of its industrial products.
About Tianjin Polytechnic University
Tianjin Polytechnic University was founded in 1912, providing an education program for bachelor, master's, doctorate and post-doctorate degrees. The campus occupies 600,000 square meters with 310,000 square meters of floor space in Tianjin City. The Tianjin Polytechnic University is also the location for the Ministry of Education labs, which are the home to the national post-doctoral research station. The University has 14 faculties with a total enrollment of over 15,000 students in the undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs. Tianjin Polytechnic University is involved in international educational programs with 50 universities located in Japan, Germany, Canada, the U.S. and 20 other countries.
About Cree, Inc.
Cree is a market-leading innovator and manufacturer of semiconductors and devices that enhance the value of solid-state lighting, power and communications products by significantly increasing their energy performance and efficiency. Key to Cree's market advantage is its world-class materials expertise in silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) for chips and packaged devices that can handle more power in a smaller space while producing less heat than other available technologies, materials and products.
Cree's product families include blue and green LED chips, lighting LEDs, LEDs for backlighting, power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices. For additional product specifications please refer to www.cree.com.
The Cree, Inc. logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3529
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including the possibility that actual energy savings may vary from expectations; customer acceptance of LED products; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render Cree's products obsolete; and other factors discussed in Cree's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 24, 2007, and subsequent filings.
LED City and its associated logo are trademarks and Cree is a registered trademark of Cree, Inc.