Osram has been addressing its position as a high-tech company. At the Osram Opto Semiconductors Market and Technology Day in Munich, Olaf Berlien, CEO of Osram Licht AG, noted again that, “Osram is very well positioned strategically and financially for the technologies and trends of the future. We are becoming the leading photonics champion. Our semiconductor segment OS forms the technological backbone of our strategic development."

Heliospectra’s horticultural lighting and control system has been selected by a Danish company, Cannabis Pharm for their new production facility. The Danish company has ordered Heliospectra’s ELIXIA LED lighting solutions and HelioCORE™ light control software to fully automate the lighting environment and provide highest quality pharmaceutical products.

An old tunnel in South Korea has been transformed into a vertical farm lit with LED growing lights to grow vegetables and fruits as an approach to solve issues caused by the extreme weather and shortages of agriculture land and labor, reported Associated Press. 

Horticulture lighting has been an escalating market for LED applications. Lighting solutions providers and LED makers have continuously reported innovated products with specific functions. Lighting giant Signify and the U.S. based growing lights supplier Fluence Bioengineering have debuted new horticultural LED lighting products respectively to enhance the growth efficiency of crops.

Heliospectra announced that a Swedish vertical farming company, Ljusgårda AB, has placed a SEK 1.3 million (US$ 143,552) order for LED lighting solution of Heliospectra.

According to the research of LEDinside, the market scale of LED plant lighting is estimated to grow to US$ 633 million by 2022, with a CAGR of 30% during 2018-2022. Many LED producers have entered the market of horticulture lighting to share the expanding opportunities when the demands in the general lighting market are relatively weak. LEDinside has collected the updates of horticultural applications from LED firms of the world. 

Lufa Farms, a Canadian food supplier based in Montreal, has collaborated with Hort Americas and Current by GE to install LED lights for maximizing the production efficiency of its hydroponic rooftop greenhouses.

Emirates Airlines partnered with a U.S. based farming start-up, Crop One Holdings to construct a 12,000 square meter (130,000 square foot) vertical farming facility in Dubai for providing fresh salads for passengers. 

The Swedish LED lighting supplier for greenhouse and controlled plant growth environment, Heliospectra AB, reported that Medical 420, a Macedonia based medicinal cannabis cultivation facility placed a new order to Heliospectra AB to increase the capacities for the growing medical market.

The prices of mid-power LED package products in the Chinese market remained stable in May 2018, while high-power 3030 LED package products saw slight price drop, says LEDinside.

Illumitex Inc., a major manufacturer of horticultural LED fixtures, has received $4 million in equity funding from WP Global Partners and NEA to accelerate the development and deployment of its digital horticulture system. WP Global lead the recent $4 mm round of growth capital. 

Noribachi, a U.S.-based technology company with a focus on lighting digitalization, announced the launch of its high-quality, full spectrum LED grow lights developed in its Northern California growlab.

Bulbs.com, an online lightbulb superstore, has launched a select assortment of horticulture grow lights in various sizes and types to fit most indoor gardening needs. Bulbs.com now carries an assortment of the following horticulture lights:

Cree, Inc. announces the new XLamp® XP-G3 Royal Blue LED, the industry’s highest performing Royal Blue LED. The new XP-G3 LED doubles the maximum light output of similar size competing LEDs and delivers breakthrough wall-plug efficiency of up to 81 percent. This superior performing Royal Blue LED expands Cree’s leading high power portfolio, enabling lighting manufacturers to deliver differentiated LED solutions for applications such as horticulture, architectural and entertainment lighting.