Hybrid solar lighting earns technology transfer award
A technology collecting sunlight connected to
special indoor light fixtures has earned an Excellence in Technology Transfer
Award.
ORNL Engineer Dave Beshears
A technology collecting sunlight connected to special indoor light fixtures has earned an Excellence in Technology Transfer Award. The award was presented recently to representatives of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The hybrid lighting technology uses a rooftop-mounted 48-inch diameter collector and secondary mirror that track the sun throughout the day. The collector system focuses the sunlight into 127 optical fibers connected to special light fixtures equipped with diffusion rods similar to fluorescent light bulbs. The rods spread light in all directions.
One collector currently powers eight to 10 hybrid light fixtures that can illuminate about 1,000 square feet of space. During times of little or no sunlight, a sensor controls the intensity of fluorescent lamps to maintain a constant level of illumination.
The system is estimated to save about 6,000 kilowatt hours per year in lighting and another 2,000 kilowatt hours in reduced cooling needs for a total savings of 8,000 kilowatt hours per year.
This is such a natural for my part of the country. We have 300+ days of clear skies. There are northern tier states up in that class, too.
Nice to see this is moving towards production. I posted about this technology, last August.
Posted: Tue - June 5, 2007 at 09:52 AM