A couple of weeks after meeting rivals in Paris to discuss phasing out incandescent light bulbs, Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands has decided to beef up its stable of solid-state lighting technology with the $75 million purchase of Vancouver-based TIR Systems Ltd.

TIR is developer of the Lexel technology, an LED lighting system designed to produce high-quality light for general illumination. The company says its LED light source is designed to be analogous to a conventional lamp, socket and ballast so it can be easily adopted by lighting manufacturers.

Philips, meanwhile, said it expects solid-state lighting to be the fastest-growing segment of the lighting market over the next two decades, eventually surpassing compact fluorescents in a number of applications. The company became a leader in solid-state lighting when in 1999 it created a joint venture with Agilent Technologies called Lumileds. Philips took over Lumileds in 2005 as part of its commitment to developing LED lighting for everyday use.

“Through the successful integration of Lumileds in 2005, we ensured a leading position in Light Emitting Diodes for the general lighting market, and through the acquisition of TIR Systems we now strengthen our position in delivering integrated lighting products to lighting fixtures manufacturers,” said Peter van Strijp, chief executive of solid-state lighting at Philips Lighting. “Our focus will now be on making lighting products that utilize TIR Systems’ Solid State Lighting modules widely available.”

Philips is paying roughly a 30 per cent premium for TIR’s shares, a good haul for the B.C. company’s shareholders. It’s a bittersweet deal: It’s good to see a Canadian technology appreciated by a global giant, but sad to see a Canadian technology swallowed up by a global giant. Overall, however, it’s a positive that Philips is raising the bar on solid-state lighting, which is where we need to go as an energy-consuming society.

BusinessWeek.com has a good wrap-up of the TED conference that recently concluded in California, where the highlight was Kleiner Perkins’ VC icon John Doerr getting emotional on stage because, as he put it simply, “I’m scared.” He’s scared because he doesn’t believe business and government are doing enough to minimize the coming economic and environmental pain associated with global warming. “I don’t think we’re going to make it,” he told the TED audience, ranging from former U.S. president Bill Clinton to singer-songwriter Paul Simon.

“And if anyone can do anything about this global warming crisis, surely they’re here, where the entrepreneurial nature of investors like Doerr and Vinod Khosla meets the celebrity power of Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker or singer Paul Simon,” according to the article.