GREEN ISLAND — The National Energy Technology Laboratory, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, has awarded Green Island-based Crystal IS a $1 million grant to help offset the costs of the company’s program to develop high-performance, energy-efficient solid state lighting applications.

The grant award is expected to offset most of the $1.3 million Crystal IS has spent to develop low-defect aluminum nitride substrates, a key component to the solid state lighting applications Crystal IS is hoping to develop.

Crystal IS a research and development company focused on creating light-emitting diodes. LED technology uses organic light sources as replacement technology for ultraviolet mercury lamps, which company officials claim are less efficient for use in creating ultraviolet light because they project a wide spectrum of light whereas the Crystal IS LED creates only ultraviolet light.

Crystal IS officials said they will use the aluminum nitride substrates developed with the DOE funding to test high-current, high-brightness white LEDs.