Researchers at General Electric's labs are working on generating light from plastics. Anil Duggal, the advanced-technology leader for organic electrics at GE's Global Research Center in Niskayuna, N.Y., shows off a transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) for the first time publicly.
The company hosted a daylong tour of its labs on Tuesday, where it announced that it is investing $1.1 billion this year in clean-technology products as part of its "Ecomagination" initiative.
OLEDs are used for screens in consumer electronic products like cameras or televisions, but GE is researching ways to bring the cost of OLEDs down so that they can be used for "mainstream lighting" applications and replace incandescent or fluorescent bulbs, according to Duggal.
OLEDs are very energy-efficient. They are also flexible, and the color of the light can be "tuned." (Researchers often show off OLEDs giving off blue light because it's the hardest to do, Duggal said.) GE hopes to have these products on the market by 2010.
Caption text by CNET News.com's Martin LaMonica.
Photo by Martin LaMonica/CNET News.com
Caption by Martin LaMonica
