I can’t find an Austin tie-in with this piece, but I have a personal interest in clean technologies. Over at the Oak Ridge National Labs they have developed this cool product for hybrid solar lighting. They place a solar dish on the roof, concentrate the sun’s light into fiber optics, and then the fiber optics carry the light where it needs to be.

In the video, proponents say just 2 strands of the fiber is the equivalent of a 60W light bulb. What a cool idea! Flouroscent light really sucks anyway, and it gives some people a headache. Natural light has been proven to increase worker productivity.

My only complaint here is that the solar tracker requires a single 9V battery to operate it, which lasts for a week. My questions are (1) who wants to get up on the roof every week to change a battery and (2) why not add a small solar panel and rechargeable battery to power the unit?

Over time if you could reduce the price to the same level as a skylight they would have a winner. Another small thing to consider is that the light can only travel 30-50 feet. So the market is probably limited to the top floor, or 1-story buildings. But there are certainly plenty of those.

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