FAIRVIEW, Texas, July 23, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq:CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces that Fairview, Texas, has joined the LED City(r) initiative, an international program that promotes the deployment of energy-efficient LED lighting. The newly constructed, four-lane Fairview Parkway, designed specifically to be lit with LEDs, features 82 LED street lights from EvoLucia, a division of Sunovia Energy Technologies, Inc.
"Fairview is proud to join the LED City initiative with the opening of the first new street in Texas lit entirely by LED street lights," said Mayor Sim Israeloff. "The quality of light is superior even to what we anticipated and is far better than what could have been provided by traditional lighting. In addition to better light quality, the town can reduce maintenance costs, improve safety, practically eliminate light pollution and dramatically reduce energy consumption."
The Sunovia fixtures, designed with Cree XLamp(r) MC-E LEDs, are designed to last an average of 12 years, depending on use, with a 50-percent electrical-energy cost savings in comparison to traditional metal-halide lights. According to Mayor Israeloff, Fairview taxpayers will benefit from $250,000 the city will save due to lower energy and maintenance costs over the anticipated lifetime of the LED lights. Switching to LEDs could reduce the town's carbon emissions by 1,000 pounds per year, as compared with the high-intensity discharge fixtures initially planned for the new roadway. Additionally, the street lights feature advanced optics that, coupled with the directional capabilities of the LEDs, allow light to be aimed exactly where it is needed. This provides an incredibly even illumination of the street, eliminating dark spots and unwanted light pollution.
Following the success of the Fairview Parkway LED transformation, the town plans to install more energy-efficient LED fixtures at the new Fairview Fire Station later in the year and in the new town hall in mid-2010. Installing LED lighting is just one of the many ways the town of Fairview is doing its part to become the most environmentally friendly small town in Texas. The town strongly enforces green building ordinances for both residential and commercial construction, including: tree-preservation guidelines, protections for greenbelts and floodplains, open-space and park dedication, and the use of modern aerobic septic systems that do not add volume to sewage treatment plants. In addition to using solar-charged storm warning sirens, Fairview is investigating solar-powered irrigation and vegetation water-filtration systems.
"Fairview's initial venture into LED street lighting was driven by Fairview's aggressive stance on dark-skies compliance, and switching to LEDs serves as a great complement to the town's ongoing eco-friendly initiatives," said Deb Lovig, Cree LED programs manager. "Significant energy and maintenance cost savings are great added benefits to doing the right thing for the environment."
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. Participants include Raleigh, N.C.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Austin, Texas; Anchorage, Ala.; Tianjian, China; Torraca, Italy; Toronto and Welland, Ontario; Indian Wells, Calif.; Chapel Hill, NC and Gwangju, South Korea.
About Fairview, Texas
Fairview, Texas, is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area and is one of the best-kept secrets of Collin County. While the town motto is "Keeping It Country," the town still maintains the best of both worlds -- up-scale living in a beautiful, rural atmosphere, while being just minutes away from fine shopping and dining throughout the metro area. Fairview is home to a new 800+ acre master planned, mixed-use development site, with two miles of frontage on North Central Expressway (US 75) between Allen and McKinney. Additional information can be found at www.fairviewtexas.org.
About Cree
Cree is lighting the LED revolution and setting the stage to obsolete the incandescent light bulb through the use of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor solutions for wireless and power applications.
Cree's product families include LED fixtures and bulbs, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, power-switching devices and radio-frequency/wireless devices. Cree solutions are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, backlighting, electronic signs and signals, variable-speed motors, and wireless communications. For additional product and company information, please refer to www.cree.com
The Cree, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.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 such as the possibility that actual savings may vary from expectations; the potential lack of 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 29, 2008, and subsequent filings.
Cree, XLamp and LED City are registered trademarks of Cree, Inc.