A California company hopes its new light-emitting diode bulb paves the way to low-cost energy efficient lighting that functions just a well as traditional incandescent lighting. The LED bulb was jointly devised by Lighting Prescriptions Innovators of Altadena, CA, and Florida-based Lighting Science Group. The two companies teamed earlier this month to announce they would become the second contestant to enter the U.S. Department of Energy’s “L” Prize contest. The first contestant was Phillips Electronics in 2009, although as testing of its bulb nears completion it remains uncertain if the giant corporation will make the grade. The L Prize--established by the federal Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007--offers a $10 million cash prize to the first company that can produce a solid state bulb to replace the conventional 60-watt incandescent bulb. The winning LED bulb must use just one-sixth the power of an incandescent. Another big L Prize reward is that the federal government pledges to buy bulbs from the winner for its huge network of federal buildings across the nation and around the world. DOE’s goal in the contest is to encourage a company to produce a dimmable LED bulb that can be screwed into a conventional incandescent fixture and: -Produce more lumens per watt than an incandescent or compact fluorescent bulb, with a total output of more than 900 lumens; -Last 25,000 hours, about 25 times longer than a typical incandescent; and -Cost $22/each in the first year of production, dropping to $8/each in the third year. DOE reasons that if such a bulb replaced all of the 425 million 60-watt incandescent bulbs sold each year the nation would save enough power to light 17.4 million homes and cut annual greenhouse gas emissions 5.6 million metric tons. Lighting Prescriptions president Roberto Alvarez predicted the “bulb will help accelerate America’s shift away from inefficient, dated lighting products.”