With five hybrid solar lighting systems already in place and another 20 scheduled to be installed in the next couple of months, the forecast is looking sunny for a technology developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Preliminary data from field units, which collect sunlight and pipe it into buildings using bundles of small optical fibers, show potentially significant energy savings in lighting and maintenance costs. An added benefit is that, for most uses, natural light is vastly superior to artificial light.

The system can save about 6,000 kilowatt hours per year in lighting and another 2,000 in reduced cooling needs for a total of 8,000 kilowatt hours annually, according to Sunlight Direct estimates…Operation and maintenance reductions could account for [even more] savings over the same period.

The challenge over the next 18 months is to reduce the cost from about $12 to $4 per square foot. With larger collectors and other design improvements, researchers say they can achieve that goal. When that happens, businesses in regions where electricity is most expensive could pay for implementing the technology in three to five years with savings in electricity bills alone

Ramping this up beyond pilot scale should easily cut costs. If there’s one item we know how to produce in mass quantities it’s optical glass fiber. The rest is off-the-shelf, as well.