Almost 65 years after Britain’s codebreakers at Bletchley Park revealed the secrets encrypted by Germany’s Enigma machine, the Buckinghamshire compound has once again become the setting for a tale of cutting-edge technology and intrigure..

This time it involves a small group of British inventors who claim they have come up with a light that will be as revolutionary as Thomas Edison’s filament lamp, the precursor of the modern electric light bulb.

However, their triumph has come after a bitter battle with one of America’s most influential investors over the rights to the technology.

Ceravision, based at Bletchley Park, has invented a lamp that it claims is twice as efficient and half the cost of any other available on the market. As well as using only small amounts of power, it produces good light quality and has an exceptionally long life, the company said.

“People have been trying to do this for 100 years,” said Tim Reynolds, Ceravision’s chief executive. Paul Waide, director of energy practice at Navigant Consulting, has been advising the company on its plans.

He said: “Our provisional assessment is that it is astonishing technology. It appears to open up a new dimension in lighting.”

The company has developed a lamp that uses microwaves to to heat gases inside a bulb and generate light. The plasma light does not need the electrode found in conventional bulbs.

It’s not a new concept; Nikola Tesla, Edison’s assistant, tried to make something similar — although he did not have easy access to today’s microwave-generators.

An “electrode-less” lamp means that there is nothing to break or discolour. The modern incandescent light still relies on an electrode that burns away, causing the colour to fade and the glass to burn. After about 1,000 hours it eventually breaks and needs to be replaced.

In recent years, more energy efficient bulbs have been developed, such as fluorescent and LED lighting, but they are not cheap to produce and the light emitted is regarded by some as harsh and unattractive.

Ceravision’s Alvara lamp aims to replace the high intensity discharge (HID) lights found predominantly in industrial or commercial settings such as warehouses, as opposed to the home or domestic market.

Other uses could be in street lighting, sports arenas, railway stations or airport runways.

Andy Neate, the Ceravision chief technology officer, who designed the lamp, said: “The combination of efficient light production and light collection means that one Alvara lamp can replace two HID lamps of the same power.”

Ceravision estimates that a typical warehouse with 300 HID lamps would save £33,000 a year in electricity and 159 tonnes of CO2 if replaced with Alvara lamps.

Industrial and commercial lighting represents a quarter of the total lighting market or about $50 billion (£30 billion) of energy a year and Reynolds believes the company can capture a large part of that.

“There are 400m HID lamps in use today and we hope the Alvara can replace each one,” he said.

For years, it seemed as it the company’s plans would never materialise. Ceravision began in 1999 as a partnership with an American company called Digital Reflection, which eventually went bust.

To keep control of the technology they had jointly developed, Ceravision bought Digital Reflection’s assets in 2004.

Then came a disheartening discovery: an American company called Luxim. This had been set up by consultants employed by Ceravision and was based on confidential technology they had access to while working for Ceravision.

Luxim is backed by one of Silicon Valley’s most influential investors, Sequoia Capital, which has invested in some of the world’s successful technology firms including Google and Yahoo.

It had already filed a patent application in the United States for the technology. Ceravision sued.

This year, after trials in both America and the High Court in Britain, Luxim was forced to assign several patents back to Ceravision and make an undisclosed settlement.

“We nearly packed it all in several times,” conceded Reynolds. Perhaps the biggest satisfaction is that, despite the victory, Ceravision has developed technology that isn’t based on the patents Luxim pursued.

The company has relied mostly on the continued support of private individuals, raising in total just £11m.

“There has been a lot of planning and some luck. In the beginning, it was two men and a dog and for a while we were doing lots of research but not much development,” said Reynolds. He is glad they never relied on heavyweight investors. “We have managed to do it without venture-capital funding, which has meant we have stayed independent and in control of our own destiny. We’ve also had no government support.”

Its lamps have attracted lots of interest, though, including from three big retailers. Reynolds wants to take things slowly when he starts selling to customers at the beginning of next year. “Our biggest problem is meeting demand,” he said.

Ceravision expects to sell 50,000 to 70,000 units in the first year. It has an ambitious forecast of £1.5 billion turnover within five years.

Times Recommends

• Toyota recalls 437,000 cars including Lexus
• Myners says bonuses are bleeding pension funds
• Japanese company faked safety reports on seats