Regulators in California have approved the new energy standards for televisions proposed early in 2009. TV manufacturers will have to make new models that will use 33% less electricity by 2011, and 49% less by 2013. It is estimated that TVs and set-top boxes use about 10% of the residential electricity consumption in California. In the 1990s, it was only about 3-4%.

This is good news for efficient TVs, and already about 300 models are ok by the 2013 regulations. Obviously this is good news for OLED TVs, too, as these are highly efficient of course.

Kodak has made a special new trophy for their Kodak Challenge (Gold tournament). It includes 3 OLED displays (which are probably the 7.6" photo frames), showing a slideshow of photos from the golf tournament.

Back in October, NanoMarkets hosted a webinar on OLED lighting. It presented the firm's latest forecasts and insights into how OLEDs are emerging in the backlighting and general illumination market. The webinar is a great way to quickly get updated on OLED Lighting...

The Webinar is now available on CD, for 249$. OLED-Info users get a 50$ discount - simply use the following referral code when you buy it online: OLEDWEB.

Nanomarkets have also released the first chapter for their OLED Lighting report (called "An Opportunity Analysis for OLED Lighting: 2009 to 2016". OLED-Info readers can get a 5% discount on this report, too, using the referral code OLEDINFO).

There are reports that CMEL is facing financial problems (most of them due to parent company CMO), and is now working at only 40% of its capacity. The same reports also suggest that Sony stopped their OLED production line, but this seems less verified.

Earlier this week CMO merged with Innolux. We haven't heard from CMEL for quite some time and hopefully this merger will solve the current financial problems.

Samsung have recently added one 3.5G (730x460mm) AMOLED vapor-deposition machine to its 3rd production line in Cheon-an. The new monthly capability is now 24K panels (when all 3 lines are combined). They also plan to buy two new 3.5G machines (which will double the production rate).

In related news, Samsung Electronics say they will sell around 10 million phones this year with AMOLEDs (that's around 5% of the total phones they plan to ship in 2009). SMD says that other mobile-phone makers are also increasing their orders for AMOLED panels.

Merck, Applied Materials and the Braunschweig University of Technology has been awarded a grant by the German government to develop processes to lower the cost of manufacturing large-area and efficient OLED Lighting for general illumination applications. The 3-year project is called Light InLine (or LILi).

The total cost of the project is about 7.5 million euros (just over $11 million). Almost half is provided by the German government, and the rest by the companies themselves.

The Florida Energy Systems Consortium (a state-funded effort to bring together researchers from 11 universities to work on renewable energy technology development) is developing a new Solar Cell + OLED + Battery Module. They are using organic solar cells on top of an OLED Lighting panel. The solar-cell is charging lithium-ion batteries which are used to power the OLEDs at night.

The idea is that all 3 components use direct current, and so an inverter is not needed, which makes the whole package cheaper.

DuPont announced that it has been awarded a $2.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a two-year project to develop OLED lighting solution-processing manufacturing techniques. DuPont says that Solution-processing is a cost-effective technique for the manufacture of OLEDs due to its lower capital investment, reduced fixed costs and efficient use of materials.

DuPont will use their experience in OLED for displays and adapt their technology for OLED Lighting.

Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Spica i5700, and it appears that the new Android phone does not have an OLED display after all.

Samsung Spica