It was more than a year ago when I first heard about an Oakville, Ont.-based company called Fifth Light Technology. FLT had developed a microprocessor-based dimmer for magnetic ballast fluorescent lighting fixtures, which on their own can’t be dimmed.

Fact is, even though electronic ballast-based fixtures are the future, the majority of lighting in office towers across Canada are likely still based on magnetic ballasts. By giving these older fixtures the capability of being dimmed, FLT was making it possible to connect these lights to energy-management systems — i.e. reduce electricity consumption by up to 65 per cent by automatically adjusting lighting levels for specific situations. At the same time, building managers could extend the life of these magnetic ballast lights before switching to more expensive electronic systems.

FLT received $3 million in funding toward a demonstration project from — surprise, surprise — Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) back in June 2004. The $9.2 million project involved Toronto Hydro and Great West Life Realty, but beyond that I couldn’t get any information out of FLT. Since then, the company has conducted itself largely in stealth mode.

This Thursday, however, it seems FLT will be having a coming out party. A large office building in Toronto’s downtown core — 33 Yonge St., to be precise — is having its magnetic-ballast lighting system completely updated with FLT’s technology. Vicky Sharpe, president of SDTC, and John McCallum, Canada’s minister of revenue and minister of natural resources, will both be on hand to showcase the project. They’ll be announcing, according to a press alert, a new technology that “promises to dramatically change the economic and environmental impact of commercial lighting.”

Anway, it’s good to know that something has actually come out of this project, and that we’ll soon be learning more about FLT, its technology and its ambitions. All that said, I wonder how long you can survive as a business by upgrading technology that’s already becoming obsolete? My guess is that FLT will have to merge with another “smart lighting” company at some point, such as Markham, Ont.-based Encelium Technologies, which does light-management systems focused on electronic ballastic fixtures, or be absorbed by a large consolidator like General Electric.

(UPDATE: I wrote a more in-depth article on this announcement for today’s Toronto Star.)

My Clean Break column today takes a closer look at a project being led by Ottawa-based Netistix Technologies, which is a vehicle telematics company primarily focused on fleets. With funding help from Sustainable Development Technologies Canada, the company wants to expand its technology beyond fleets to the consumer market. The goal is to provide an affordable, easy-to-use driver feedback service that would help vehicle owners drive and maintain their cars as efficiently and affordably as possible, with the result being less fuel consumption and reduced emissions.

The diagnostic and driving information would be wirelessly beamed to a Netistix server whenever the vehicle owner visited a participating service station. Wi-Fi would be the technology of choice. Once collected, the driver could access feedback reports on the Web or get alerts pushed to them via e-mail or text message.

Will be interesting to see how this experiment unfolds, and whether drivers can truly benefit from the information they receive. More important, whether drivers actually act on the information they receive.