INDIAN WELLS, Calif., Jan. 14, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq:CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announced that Indian Wells, California, has joined the LED City(r) initiative, an international program that promotes the deployment of energy-efficient LED lighting. The city has converted much of the lighting in City Hall, the Emergency Operations Center and the Public Works Maintenance Facility to LED lighting. Indian Wells is home to several world-class resorts and is internationally recognized for hosting high-profile golf and tennis events.
"It is initiatives like these that have made California a world leader in energy efficiency," said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I applaud the City of Indian Wells and the University of California, Davis for promoting the kinds of energy-efficiency measures that California needs to meet our aggressive goal of 33-percent renewable energy by 2020."
All circular recessed lighting in the buildings was converted to the Cree LR6 LED light, reducing electricity consumption by 80 percent. The City of Indian Wells plans to evaluate LED lighting for other municipal lighting applications to further increase its energy savings.
"The City of Indian Wells takes being green seriously," said Mayor Larry Spicer. "We are known worldwide for our extraordinary landscape and pristine environment, and we make stewardship of these resources a top priority. The recessed LED lighting we have installed throughout our municipal buildings cuts our energy consumption for those lights by 80 percent and is targeted to last for 12 to 25 years, significantly reducing the time and money we spend changing and tossing away bulbs."
"We collaborated with Southern California Edison for these initial LED lighting installations," noted Greg Johnson, Indian Wells city manager. "They gave us a directive to save energy. We conducted an initial evaluation of many different efficient lighting solutions, and the Cree LR6 LED recessed light was far superior to the others."
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 Indian Wells, California
From a humble oasis sprung a fountain of luxury. Long an exclusive playground of movie stars, sports legends and even American presidents, Indian Wells now welcomes the world to its sparkling resorts and premier cultural, golf and tennis events.
What was once a tribal well and wagon stop slowly grew in the 1950s and 1960s into a small, celebrity-studded enclave. Throughout the 1950s, tennis tournaments became annual events, and in 1960, the first Bob Hope Desert Classic was played at Indian Wells Country Club -- forever linking Indian Wells with top-ranked golf.
Today, thousands of visitors come every year to four luxury resorts on championship courses and to events like the LG Skins Game and the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament presented by The City of Indian Wells.
About Cree
Cree is leading the LED lighting 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 solutions, and semiconductor solutions for wireless and power applications.
Cree's product families include recessed LED down lights, 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 energy saving 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 and LED City are registered trademarks of Cree, Inc.