Dubbed, the Intelligent Lighting Centre (ILC), the consortium is made up of researchers from several UK universities, and is backed with £4.6 million (US $7.28M) by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Together the consortium aims to conduct research on a smaller LED than other groups around the world that are also investigating this technology.

First, a bit on what they call Li-Fi from the university release (or you can go catch a TED talk on the topic):

Underpinning Li-Fi is the use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a rapidly spreading lighting technology which is expected to become dominant over the next 20 years. Imperceptibly, LEDs flicker on and off thousands of times a second: by altering the length of the flickers, it is possible to send digital information to specially-adapted PCs and other electronic devices – making Li-Fi the digital equivalent of Morse Code. This would make the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum available for internet communications, easing pressure on the increasingly crowded parts of the spectrum currently being used.

Instead of researching Li-Fi LEDs around 1mm2 in size, the EPSRC-funded team is developing tiny, micron-sized LEDs which are able to flicker on and off 1,000 times quicker than the larger LEDs. This would allow them to transfer more information, giving them greater capacity; think of comparable to the difference between DSL and fiber connections.

Additionally, 1,000 micron-sized LEDs would fit into the space occupied by a single larger 1mm2 LED, with each of these tiny LEDs acting as a separate communication channel. Thus, a 1mm2 sized array of micron-sized LEDs could communicate one million times as much information as one 1mm2 LED, according to the release. In a video accompanying the release, it says the LED lights could transmit data at 1 gigabit per second.

The crazy thing about these tiny LED is that while they are shooting information to one another, they could also be lighting your home or showing you a message or maybe even a picture. So far two companies have spun out of this research group attempting to build out LED-based wireless data transmission: mLED and pureVLC.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Flash analysis: lessons from Solyndra’s fall
• Smart Grid Apps: Six Trends That Will Shape Grid Evolution
• Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times

The startup’s growth shows how LEDs are breaking through in the industrial and commercial sectors. That’s because LEDs can save building owners money over the life of the systems, because the lights are more efficient and customers pay smaller monthly electricity bills than they would with traditional lighting. Digital Lumens says it is now saving some of its customers more than $25 million per year.

In contrast, LEDs are moving more slowly into homes, because the cost savings over time aren’t that attractive (or apparent) to the average home owner. A new LED bulb, like the one from Philips, costs $25 compared to a few dollars for a compact fluorescent bulb, or under a $1 for an incandescent.

Industrial building owners also benefit from the LED management systems that Digital Lumens sells, and the company wirelessly networks its lights and uses sensors to dim them in areas of the building that aren’t being used. The startup uses LED components from Cree, and designs its own lighting system and develops the lighting management software.

Digital Lumens also has a lighting as a service business that it’s developed and is launching this year. The company is backed by investors Black Coral Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, and Stata Ventures.

Venture investors put far less money into cleantech startups in 2012, and that trend will likely continue in 2013. Most companies that are still able to raise funds are maturing companies that are showing growth, like Digital Lumens. And energy efficiency (like LEDs) is one of the sectors that VCs still seem to be willing to fund.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Opportunities in LED Solid-State Lighting
• Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times
• 2010: LED’s Watershed Year

Albeo is a venture-backed startup, based in Boulder, Colorado, that once described itself to us as the Dell of LEDs. The company makes LED fixtures and control systems, and buys the light emitting diodes themselves from big LED manufacturers. In 2007, Albeo switched its focus from the residential market to selling LED systems to industrial and commercial customers.

Good move. According to GigaOM Pro and Pike Research, by 2020 LEDs will make up nearly half (46 percent) of the $4.4 billion U.S. commercial lamp market. According to The Denver Business Journal, Albeo’s revenue have blossomed 430 percent over three years, from $2 million in 2009 to $10.6 million in 2011.

Albeo has found a growing amount of customers with industry like commercial-scale refrigeration, data centers, parking garages, and warehouses — anyplace where companies want to extend the life of the lights as long as possible, and also are large enough to benefit from the energy savings of the more efficient LEDs. LEDs are significantly more efficient than both incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs.

For industry and commercial companies LEDs are starting to be a clear winner. For the residential market — not so much. Most residential LED bulbs are expensive enough that home owners don’t yet see the benefits of the long term energy savings.

Albeo was backed by Denver-based Green Spark Ventures. Update: Braemer Energy Ventures invested in Albeo, too. Exits in the cleantech world have been few and far between.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Smart Grid Apps: Six Trends That Will Shape Grid Evolution
• Big data meets the smart grid
• Green IT Q4: solar, subsidies and the outlook for EVs

SolarBridge raises $25 million, series D: SolarBridge makes solar microinverters, which are miniature versions of conventional central solar inverters that are necessary for converting the direct current generated by solar panels to alternating current for feeding the grid or to be used onsite. Instead of matching a central inverter to a dozen panels at a time, each microinverter serves one panel. This design allows the microinverters to calculate and adjust the optimal energy output of each solar panel and prevents poor-performing panels from affecting the power output of the best-performing ones.

SolarBridge raised $25 million in a series D round led by Shea Ventures and including Battery Ventures, Rho Ventures and Osage University Partners. The company has raised more than $71 million to date, including a $19 million series C round last year. SolarBridge says the funding will be used to launch “new hardware and software products, increase sales and marketing efforts and expand the company’s operations globally.”

Solar microinverters are the future of solar inverters, but are still at an early market phase. Enphase Energy is another leader in the microinverter space and Enphase went public earlier this year.

Redwood Systems raises $11.75 million, series C: Redwood Systems makes a control and sensor system for LEDs that runs over an optimized version of Ethernet cables. The company just closed $11.75 million in a series C round from investors including Battery Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Index Ventures and Mitsui & Co, Ltd. Japanese conglomerate Mitsui started backing the company a year ago.

Redwood Systems is four years old and some of its customers include SAP, Volkswagen, Johnson Controls and most recently, Facebook. Commercial building owners and data center operators can use Redwood’s LED system to cut the amount of lighting used throughout the building — in some cases, up to 70 percent over standard non-networked fluorescent lighting systems. LEDs are more efficient than fluorescents, but Redwood’s management system also monitors the building environment, including temperature and room occupancy, and can dim and manage the lights to help maximize efficiency.

Lighting Science Group raises $140 million: LED maker Lighting Science Group has closed on $140 million in private funding, led by private equity firm Riverwood Capital, and including Pegasus Capital Advisors. Lighting Science Group is already publicly traded on the OTC bulletin board, and over a year ago indicated that it wanted to go public on the Nasdaq and raise $150 million.

Lighting Science designs and makes LED lamps and other light fixtures for the residential, commercial and industrial market. The company has been selling LED lighting for nearly a decade and owns factories in Satellite Beach, Florida and Monterrey, Mexico.

GreenBytes raises $12 million, series B: GreenBytes makes data de-duplication storage gear, which are tools that reduce redundant data as well as store data on energy efficient storage solid state drives. The company raised a $12 million series B round from Battery Ventures and Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management.

“Primary storage”, or top tier storage, is comprised of hardware designed for quick data access and are usually reserved for active or just-created data.  Beneath this are “secondary tiers” devoted to backup storage, archives and storage of lower priority business data. GreenBytes’ appliances are deployed close to the top tiers of storage so that fewer data trickles down to other tiers and the greater the potential cost and energy savings overall. Despite the promise of data deduplification, IT managers are still wary about it, according a GigaOM Pro report “De-Duplicating the Storage Industry” (subscription required).

Solar Mosaic raises $2.5 million: According to a filing, the kickstarter of solar, SolarMosaic has raised $2.5 million. The company is just about to launch the truly disruptive part of its business: as early as this Summer SolarMosaic plans to start offering people a way to buy into rooftop solar panel projects, and make back a return on their investment over time.

Soladigm raises close to $5 million in debt, option: Soladigm, which makes electrochromic “smart” windows that tint when electricity is applied to them, has raised $5 million in debt and options according to a filing. The startup was founded in 2007 and is based in Milpitas, Calif.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• De-Duplicating the Storage Industry
• Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times
• 2010: LED’s Watershed Year

As Dan Reicher, the executive director at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, told the gathered audience, tens of trillions of dollars are going to be spent on energy infrastructure in the next few decades, and we need to have strong policy and finance to support a sustainable-energy future. He went on to say that startups need help bridging the technology valley of death, the gap between having a functional demo and being operational on a commercial scale, which sometimes takes decades to close.

Before announcing the grand prize, Jim Davis, the president of Chevron Energy Solutions, took a hopeful view and suggested that some of the event’s competitors were working on technologies that might have “the power to change the world.” And that although “developing these technologies to commercial scale remains a challenge, our collective challenge is to create solutions” that will meet the growing energy needs of the future — a future that in Davis’ projection includes 8.5 billion people who consume 40 percent more energy than we do today.

Here’s hoping that these entrepreneurs are on the right track.

Grand prize finalists (and category winners):

Air-water-waste: PK Clean, which converts landfill plastics into hydrocarbon fuels through a catalytic depolymerization process.

Energy efficiency: Indow Windows, which manufactures thermal window inserts that press into place on the inside of a window frame to deliver double-pane window performance at a fraction of the price. The startup also took home the sustainability award.

Green building: Whole Trees Structures, which manufactures structural building systems made from round timber, the waste product of sustainably managed forests.

Smart power: GridMobility, whose Color of the Electron™ signal technology enables business, industry and consumers to choose electricity sources based on their personal preferences.

Regional winners

Overall winners for each of the six competing regions — California, Northeast, North Central, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain and South Central—were also named.

California: b2u Solar, which makes solar heat systems.

Northeast: Arctic Sand, which manufactures power converter chips designed to reduce the amount of electricity used by data centers.

North Central: FortEco Lightweight Structures, which creates lightweight composite framing systems utilizing light gauge steel, insulation decking and concrete.

Pacific Northwest: Indow Windows, which makes window inserts that turn windows into efficient double-pane windows for cheap.

Rocky Mountain: Veritek Coal Processing, which uses a technology process to extract mercury, sulfur, heavy metals and other impurities from precombustion coal.

South Central: cycleWood Solutions, which makes biodegradable and compostable thermoplastic that can be used in a variety of commercial plastics, including cups, plates and bags.

Global ideas prize finalists

Biofiltro (winner), Chile, waste water treatment.

Biométhodes, France, “integrated biotechnology, renewable chemistry, and energy.”

Black Silicon Solar, Denmark, nanotechnology to increase the absorption of light in silicon solar cells.

Cambridge Nanotherm, UK thermal management for LED lighting systems.

ReformTech, Sweden, “strives to professionalize the catalytic heater and mobile/stationary hydrogen reformation market through best practice development and collaborative business system.”

Resolute Marine Energy, U.S., wave-driven power solutions.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times
• The fourth quarter of 2012 in cleantech
• Cleantech and investment in 2013

Illumitex is looking to raise $25.23 million in total in this round, and has closed $13.5 million of that. Investors listed on Illumitex’s filing include Dan Watkins at DFJ Mercury, and Forest Baskett and Jimmy Treybig at New Enterprise Associates. New Enterprise Associates and DFJ previously invested in Illumitex.

The Austin, Texas company, founded in 2005, publicized a $10.5 million B round back in 2008, and last December raised $3.4 million in debt and options, according to this filing. In October 2009, Illumitex also got $4.3 million in equity in a total $10 million round, according to an SEC filing. That year also happened to be the time when financial market meltdown crippled fundraising activities and the overall cleantech market.

Illumitex develops LED chips and assembles them into modules that will be built into light bulbs and installations. The company is targeting the general lighting market as well as lighting designs that accentuate architectural buildings and lighting designs that can help plants grow in greenhouses.

The startup says it’s been able to shrink the number of components in its LEDs by forgoing the use of secondary optics that lead to the dome shape devices commonly found in other LEDs. In addition, the company has been able to develop LED chips that can still emit bright and precisely aimed beams in smaller packages, while the smaller package saves space and allows lighting system makers to squeeze more of them into an installation.

Illumitex announced several new products earlier this year, but it remains to be seen whether it’s able to win large customer orders to continue in a market where competition has intensified, particularly from Asian manufacturers. Although the price for LED lights has declined, it hasn’t fallen quick enough for mass adoption.

The LED lighting market hasn’t grown as quickly as some investors and tech developers have hoped. Cree CEO Chuck Swoboda, told Reuters  Monday that the payback period for LED lighting systems still remains too long. Cree develops LEDs and packages them into bulbs.

Photo courtesy of Illumitex

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Opportunities in LED Solid-State Lighting
• Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times
• Report: Cleantech’s Third-Quarter Growing Pains

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Green IT’s Q4 Winners: Wind Power, Solar Power, Smart Energy
• Green IT Overview, Q2 2010
• After Solyndra: analyzing the solar industry

The firm anticipates that by 2020, LEDs will provide 60 percent of low bay lighting for commercial, industrial, government and public buildings, while advanced lighting controls will be put to work in an impressive 90 percent of government and public spaces. Advanced lighting tech will be less dominant in homes, according to Lux, with LEDs providing 42 percent of the lighting in the residential market (if you want to hop on the LED train, check out our roundup of 5 LED bulbs you can buy soon to replace incandescents).

High price tags historically have been a major barrier to adoption of LED bulbs. For example, General Electric introduced an LED bulb in April that can replace a 40-watt incandescent bulb, but consumes just 9 watts and could last 17 years if used for four hours a day. In addition, the bulb — like a growing number of offerings from startups and lighting giants alike — can fit into a standard incandescent socket. But GE priced this long-lasting, highly efficient, drop-in bulb at $40-50 at retailers.

While government and commercial customers generally factor in long term operating costs, for a consumer to hand over $50 to replace something that usually costs them less than a buck up front will require a major shift in thinking.

By improving on cost and efficiency, however, LED developers are coming within striking distance of delivering a payback period of about one year. Already, Home Depot has begun selling an LED from Lighting Science Group that breaks the $20 barrier (GigaOM Pro, subscription required). Upon reaching the one-year-payback threshold, Lux predicts, “LED-based illumination will explode onto the scene,” edging out T8 fluorescent lamps often used in government and commercial buildings by 2014.

Image courtesy of Mike Deal aka ZoneDancer’s photostream.

For more research on LEDs and solid-state lighting see GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

• Opportunities in LED Solid-State Lighting
• 2010: LED’s Watershed Year

Michael Cera with "Snooki" and "Sammi." Photo courtesy of dvDepot.

The upcoming Michael Cera film Youth in Revolt, opening tomorrow in theaters, isn’t your typical teen comedy, at least judging by the trailer. So how do you get teenagers to see it? Hitch the Michael Cera star to one of the biggest teen trends going today — Jersey Shore — for a series of ads that will run tonight between commercial breaks of the much-buzzed-about reality series.

Video from the ads, which were produced by Partizan Entertainment for the Weinstein Company and crewed by dvDepot, has been leaked in advance onto Bing (although, sadly, it’s not embeddable).

The concept is simple — Cera gets a dance lesson from the Jersey Shore cast, gets his hair blown out by Pauly D into the self-professed guido’s signature coif, and then hangs out in a hot tub. It’s a fun spin on Cera’s literally buttoned-up image, but just another day for the Jersey Shore kids, who are now professional partiers — when they’re not soliloquizing Shakespeare-style.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• Strategic Implications of the Microsoft/Skype Deal
• Green IT Q1: Cleantech Breaking Out — and Bracing for Hard Times