Nothing in the realm of new technology gets me more excited than sunlight transportation. Since sunlight is our most infinitely renewable resource, I am amazed that it has taken us so long to start developing hi-tech lighting and energy systems around it. Like Parans, the Swedish sunlight transport system we covered a couple months back, Sunlight Direct is a fiber-optic sunlight transportation system designed so you can collect sunlight on a roof, and then bring it into the interior of a building to illuminate a dark room. Unlike Parans, Sunlight Direct also incorporates Hybrid Solar Lighting (HSL) – the storage of solar energy to power fluorescent tubes in cases of low sunlight, such as on cloudy days, or at night.
Sunlight Direct uses a parabolic mirror to collect sunlight. The system then filters out the heat-causing UV light, and pipes the remaining natural light into interior spaces via fiber optic lines. Currently the light can only be sent about 30 feet or so due to loss of light as it travels through the lines. One unit delivers 50,000 lumens, or roughly the equivalent amount of light needed to illuminate 1000 square feet.
The best part is that Sunlight Direct is currently allowing people to beta-test this new product – so get on it peeps! (I would love to hear from anyone who tries this). The manufacturers expect the Sunlight Direct system to be available for purchase in 2007.
Via Core 77
Very interested in incorporating these ideas in our new home. Just starting construction.
aloha
JoLinda Susilo