Venture capital firms are glowing about energy efficient lighting companies and they are spending large sums of money as they anticipate a boom in this sector. New York-based Braemar Energy Ventures and San Francisco-based VantagePoint Venture Partners are both targeting $50 million of investments at energy efficient lighting companies currently. VantagePoint may increase that amount by another $50 million; out of their more than $1 billion in capital dedicated to clean technology companies, energy-efficient lighting companies represent “the top one or two sectors.”

At the center of the energy efficient lighting market are light-emitting diode and lighting control companies... the LED market will reach about $50 billion in sales within 10 years, assuming LEDs become about 10% of the worldwide lighting market by that time. The LED market was about $5 billion in 2008, according to industry analysts. “That $50 billion for just 10% of the market, that gets a lot of the entrepreneurial juices flowing,” Van den Berg said.

Go to Wall Street Journal to read more (by Sari Krieger)...