Del. company gets $1.5 million grant from Energy Department

A Delaware company, White Optics, was awarded $1.5 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

On Thursday, Governor Jack Markell stressed the importance of “making things” in Delaware again.  Friday, he followed up that desire for the state to return to manufacturing by visiting a Newport factory that will produce a new material to improve efficiency for LED light fixtures.  The Crowell Corporation, which moved to Newport in 1965, will manufacture the new technology developed by White Optics, a company recently founded in Newark by two former DuPont workers.

Markell says, “The idea that a brand new company in Delaware is teaming up with a company that’s been around for a long time to come up with this new technology that’s going to make such agreat difference.”

Earlier this week, White Optics was awarded $1.5 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The money will create or save about five jobs in the immediate future, with the potential to create 100 manufacturing jobs in the future.  Senator Tom Carper (D) says those kinds of  jobs are the jobs of the future, “Kind of high-end manufacturing jobs that add real value and do good things for our country, do good things for our environment.”  The technology could be used to retrofit the lighting in factories, office buildings, and retail stores to use less energy to produce the same amount of light.