Ledmotive, a startup company leader in spectrally tuneable LED lighting modules, accelerated by the Repsol Foundation, has outfitted a 24/7 working environment (Repsol polypropylene control room) with a novel lighting system designed for critical-task performing undergone with a total absence of natural daylight. The technology allows to dynamically illuminate the room with a light spectrum that is a perfect match to sunlight throughout the eight-hour shift work in tune with the employees’ biological clock (circadian rhythms).

Tarragona, May 5, 2017.- Ledmotive Technologies S.L (https://ledmotive.com), a spinoff from the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) accelerated by the Repsol Entrepreneurship Fund, has installed its patented system of intelligent spectral playback in one of the Repsol industrial complexes, a 24/7 control room in EL Morell (Tarragona).

This technology has been presented today in a ceremony attended by the director of Energy and Institutional Sustainability of Repsol Foundation, Eduardo García Moreno, by the director of Repsol industrial complex in Tarragona, Josep Francesc Font, and by the CTO and CEO of Ledmotive, Dr. Josep Carreras and Meritxell Carreras.

The aim of this project is to provide with the dynamism of daylight, changing the illumination patterns throughout the day, illuminating a working environment and thus with a lack of daylight due to the absence of windows for security reasons. The lighting system is aimed at illuminating the room with a perfect match to sunlight, increasing the feeling of wellbeing, an providing optimal lighting conditions that enhance performance, concentration, motivation of employees, and error rates, while at the same time helping in the synchronization of their circadian rhythms with our 24h day.

Numerous scientific studies have shown that the sunlight cycle has a major impact on our health and wellbeing (controlling the immune system, segregation of different hormones, vitamin D generation or perception of the environment). The biological impact varies depending on the light intensity and spectral composition of the light being used to illuminate the environment. In indoor spaces lacking from daylight, Ledmotive offers a unique lighting solution based on a novel multiwavelength technology, which provides light spectra that has the same visual and nonvisual properties of sunlight in the visible range (380-780 nm). Since the photoreceptors present in our visual system that are in charge of the non-visual pathways (those controlling our body clock) essentially have their response around 480nm, Ledmotive’s technology can be efficiently used to recreate the same benefits of sunlight, by carefully mimicking the spectral changes of sunlight throughout the day.

These special luminaires have been programmed to follow a pre-defined light sequence adapted to each work shift schedule depending on the time of the day. The lighting sequence changes automatically by gathering every few seconds the local time information and reproducing the right sunlight spectrum accordingly.

This lighting system has been very well rated by the employees working in this harsh environment, who have substantially increased their level of satisfaction in comparison with the previous lighting system, as surveys suggests.

The technology provided by Ledmotive offers a unique selling point as compared to other offerings in the LED market. It offers the possibility to record, process and playback any light spectrum, regardless whether it is coming from a natural light source (like sunlight) or a light artificially designed for a concrete application. Using advanced algorithms and a microprocessor embedded in the LED module, 10 different LED channels (wavelengths) are mixed up, each LED channel covering a different region of the visible range, making it possible to produce a light of a very high quality and fidelity to sunlight.

This technology has applications in many fields such as healthcare, office, retail or museums amongst others. In fact, the London National Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Catalonia (MNAC) in Barcelona are already using the proposed solution.

LEDMOTIVE was one of the awarded companies of the Repsol Entrepreneurship Fund program, and in January 2017 has been selected to receive funding through the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument, Phase 2.

For more info please contact:

Ledmotive Technologies, S.L.
Meritxell Carreras, CEO
93 488 48 90
mcarreras@ledmotive.com