Links, Including Hybrid Lighting

An excellent overview in Architectural Record about various tax-incentive programs for green/LEED-certified buildings. This new book, Developing Green: Strategies for Success, written by USGBC LEED faculty member Jerry Yudelson, sounds like a terrific resource for commercial developers interested in learning more about green building practices (or anyone else, for that matter).

Yudelson delineates the practice of building green and includes seven keys to successful green marketing. He also validates the cost of green buildings and explains how to incorporate green features into any project.

Green building consulting firm (Domani Sustainability Consulting, LLC) opens an office in Manhattan. A fascinating new hybrid lighting technology that's about to be tested across the country. Units, somewhat akin to solar panels, mounted on a building, capture natural light and transmit it through fiberoptic cable to lighting fixtures that are similar to fluorescent bulbs. Not only would building owners benefit from lower lighting costs, but the lighting systems throughout the entire building would provide actual, natural light!

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. "This is the ultimate 'green' technology" said Duncan Earl, a co-developer of the technology and chief technology officer of Oak Ridge startup company Sunlight Direct, which licensed the technology from ORNL last year. "In fact, we have received many inquiries and are working with several organizations that are aiming to build LEED - (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings." The U.S. Green Building Council established the LEED designation for buildings that comply with a national consensus standard for design and construction of "green" buildings. The hybrid solar 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 hybrid light fixtures equipped with diffusion rods visually similar to fluorescent light bulbs. These rods spread light in all directions. One collector powers eight to 12 hybrid light fixtures, which can illuminate about 1,000 square feet. During times of little or no sunlight, a sensor controls the intensity of the artificial lamps to maintain a constant level of illumination. Over the next several months, researchers in ORNL's Solar Technologies Program will continue to perform beta testing of the units, installed or being installed at various locations around the nation, including Sacramento Municipal Utility District customer service headquarters, San Diego State University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Wal-Mart in McKinney, Texas, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a Staples store in Long Island, N.Y., and Aveda Corp. in Minneapolis.