Solar Lights

Solar Technology

Hybrid Solar Lighting – the Future of Solar Lights

In this article, I wanted to go a little further in depth into hybrid solar lighting. My first article can be found under Hybrid Solar Lighting Technology.

Hybrid solar lighting is the new buzzword in the energy sector. Unlike standard solar lights, hybrid solar lighting is relatively new and uses a combination of technologies. Conventional solar lights use solar energy and convert it into electrical energy to light the bulb. In the newer version, the sunlight is mirrored indoors using a collector and optical light cables. When there is enough sunlight, there is no electricity used to power the bulbs. On a not-so-sunny day, the electricity generated by the solar energy is used to light the bulbs.

Hybrid solar lighting technology has been in use for some years now but because of the prohibitively high cost it was relatively unheard of. Solar lights are more affordable and hence they took off faster. However, with much technological advancement taking place in the recent past, hybrid solar lighting now looks to be more attractive; at least for commercial uses. The cost has come down with the global positioning system becoming more affordable and getting the computer accessories manufactured at cheaper price.

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Solar Lights and Public Safety

Browse the internet for solar lights and you will find an endless supply of information on solar yard lights, solar security lights, string lights, shed lights, etc. Solar lights have added a completely new dimension to ecologically sound lighting for all kinds of residential and commercial applications. Fairly recently, we have even began to see them in use by municipalities to enhance public safety.

The most common use for solar lighting in this area is for street lights. Many cities around the United States and around the world have begun replacing standard street lights with solar versions. Not only do they reduce the municipality’s energy usage, but solar street lights require less maintenance than the traditional styles.

Leading the way for solar lighting in the public safety sector is a company called Silicon Constellations, out of Santa Clara, California. They specialize in wireless, solar crosswalk lights. Using their solar road markers, wireless controllers, advanced warning signs and beacons, they can create the perfect configuration for any roadway crosswalk.

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Industrial Solar Lights

I touched on industrial solar lights in the Hybrid Solar Lighting Technology article, but I would like to go into a bit more detail about some of the uses of solar lights in commercial application and some of the companies that are on the cutting edge of solar technology.

There are a number of companies that are leading the way for commercial solar lighting. One of those companies is Solar Cynergy. “Solar Cynergy manufactures high end architectural solar LED lighting for homes, developments and cities” as well as “an OEM line of Solar Photovoltaic Panels.” They are primarily a manufacturer and have distributors nation wide. Their product line is pretty unique in that they specialize in “solar inground lighting”. Their solar lights have been used in the Las Vegas Panorama Towers Luxury Condominium Project, the Granite Gables development project in Dallas, TX , and at the San Francisco Airport Hilton, to name just a few. I suggest visiting their website and blog to see all of the unique ways they use solar lighting technology.

Another company that specializes in industrial solar lights is OkSolar.com. They offer complete, tun-key solutions for solar lighting. They are mostly pole-mounted lights that come with everything except the pole. You can choose to supply the pole yourself, or have them quote you a separate price for the pole. These units can be used for: street lighting, area lighting, dock lights, lighting billboards, park lighting, parking lot lighting, walkway lighting, transit lighting, security lighting, etc.

If you are looking for a company that manufactures and sells a wide variety of solar lights, solar panels and complete solar systems, you could do worse than taking a look at Silicon Solar. These guys are international and widely respected. Take a look at their site. It’s a big site with lots of info.

As these companies are providing us with the opportunity to use solar power for more and more applications, researchers are working harder than ever to further solar technology to be cheaper to manufacture and be more efficient. At the University of Washington, a team of experts headed by David Ginger has been experimenting with manufacturing solar cells out of organic plastic polymers. Paul Berger and his team of researchers has found that adding silver nanoparticles to the polymers allows for an almost 12% increase in their efficiency. Meanwhile at the University of Texas, Brian Korgel and his team are working on a Solar Ink, that can be basically painted onto buildings. Innovalight, a company out of Sunnyvale, CA. is using silicon ink patterned on top of silicon wafers to boost the efficiency of solar cells. While most researches are aiming for a goal of 10% efficiency out of their solar cells, Innovalight boasts an efficiency rating of 18%!

As you can see, we have come a long way with solar technology in a relatively short period of time. Entire homes and businesses are being solar powered and solar lights are everywhere. It will not be long before we will no longer be dependent on fossil fuels for our home and business energy needs.

Hybrid Solar Lighting Technology

With the increased use of solar lights in residential and commercial applications, there is a push for more advanced technologies to integrate indoor solar lights into more and more applications. One such technology is called “ hybrid lighting technology”.

Artificial lighting accounts for the largest percentage of electricity use in commercial buildings in the United States. Hybrid solar lighting provides a promising new way to reduce energy consumption while also delivering increased benefits associated with natural lighting in commercial buildings.

Hybrid solar lighting contributes to meeting the requirements set by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 for renewable energy consumption by the federal government to be not less than 3% in FY 2007–2009, 5% in FY 2010–2012, and 7.5% in 2013 and thereafter.

The technology behind hybrid solar lights was originally developed for fluorescent lighting applications but recently has been enhanced to work with many other applications. One of those applications is to replace incandescent accent-lighting sources, such as the parabolic aluminized reflector (PAR) lamps commonly used in retail spaces. Many commercial building owners—specifically retailers—use the low-efficiency PAR lamps because of their desirable optical properties and positive impact on sales. Yet the use of this inefficient lighting results in some retailers’ spending 55–70% of their energy budgets on lighting-related energy costs.

Hybrid solar lights have the potential to greatly reduce energy consumption while also maintaining or exceeding lighting quality requirements. Implementation of the hybrid solar lighting technology across the U.S. would significantly increase energy savings to the country and would provide building owners with a higher quality, energy-efficient, and economically viable alternative to incandescent lamps. Artificial lighting accounts for almost a quarter of the energy consumed in commercial buildings and 10–20% of energy consumed by industry. Solar lights can significantly reduce artificial lighting costs in many commercial and industrial buildings and in institutional facilities such as schools, libraries, and hospitals.

Future research and development is aimed at increasing the performance and reliability of solar lighting technology as well as extending the application of these systems to work with newly emerging solid-state lighting sources. Hybrid solar lights deliver the benefits of natural lighting with the advantages of an electric lighting system – flexibility, convenience, reliability, and control – while saving energy and money and helping to reduce the demand for non-renewable energy sources.

For more information about Hybrid Solar Lighting technology, you may want to check out the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They earned the Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer in 2007, an R&D 100 Award and a Southeast Region Federal Laboratory Consortium Award during 2006.