THE INSTITUTE FOR
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
UC Santa Barbara’s Institute for Energy Efficiency (IEE) is a world leader in developing breakthrough technologies that substantially save energy while advancing the standard of living worldwide. IEE’s award-winning research has been the foundation for numerous energy-saving innovations including bright and energy-saving white light LED lighting, more energy-efficient data-center communications and interconnects, and software that reduces energy usage in buildings worldwide.
Research Themes
Projects within each theme attack critical energy-efficiency grand challenges to develop new technologies for improving and ensuring a more sustainable future.
Highlights
Learn more how the Institute of Energy Efficiency influences the world
Red microLEDs developed at UCSB achieve record efficiency of 20.8%, operate at up to 200°C
Gallium nitride has made highly efficient blue LEDs possible. Getting the same semiconductor to produce red light efficiently has proved much more difficult.
October 21, 2026
John Bowers honored by UC Regents for a lifetime of innovation
For innovations with lasting impacts on society and for his influence on generations of inventors and entrepreneurs, UC Santa Barbara professor John Bowers, a pioneer in silicon photonics, received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural UC Regents Innovation Awards.
September 29, 2026
The Institute for Energy Efficiency Expands its Scope — and Pulls in SSLEEC
When John Bowers, inaugural director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency (IEE) at UC Santa Barbara, retired in June, Steven DenBaars, professor of materials and electrical engineering and a longtime IEE affiliate who has served as co-director (with Shuji Nakamura) of the Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Center (SSLEEC) at UCSB since its founding twenty-five years ago, became the new IEE director. One of his first actions has been to increase the number of IEE research themes from three to six and to begin the process of folding SSLEEC into IEE. He spoke with us in October.
