India:Staving off power crisis -`Arthelio Project'

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Maybe California should look in to this.

Staving off power crisis

THIS ONE news should cheer up many a policy planner who is constantly struggling to stave off the looming power crisis. The technical university in Berlin has developd a prototype day lighting system that will reduce electrical energy consumption. The programme is named `Arthelio Project'.The programme is aimed to harness solar energy to light up the building interiors. The objective it to restrict artificial lighting. The day lighting system uses mirrors and heliostats to direct sunlight into the interiors of a building through a special tube.

The European installation bus (EIB) in the system is embedded with censors and activators. All electricity-related components/activities inside the building - like cooking, pressing and what no - are connected to the EIB. Thus, the EIB is fed with all information connected to the electrical activities inside the building.Depending on the electricity requirements of varied activities within the building, the EIB controls the sulphur lamp inside the building. The sulphur lamp for the prototype day lighting system has been supplied by a Swedish company. A light measuring device, Gonio Photometer forms part of new system.A couple of private firms from Italy and Germany are involved in the `Save Energy Programme'. The GothensBurg University of Sweden has done the user acceptance study for the day lighting system.

One of the prototypes has already been unveiled at Technische Universitat Berlin. (the technical university in the German capital). The systems uses a mirror of four square meter size. The tube has a diameter of 28 cm. Another prototype is being installed in Italy, much smaller than the one at Berlin varsity. According to Mr. Alexander Rosemann, who forms part of the four- member team that had developed the new system, the innovation will help to improve visual comfort and to see colours inside the four walls of a building.

Mr. Rosemann is convinced that the system can have a positive psychological fall-out on an individual. In his estimate, the day lighting system can result in a saving of up to 64 per cent in the electrical energy on sunny days.On the face of it, this development should prove a big boon to power policy planners not just in countries like Germany but tropical nations like India as well. A cursory understanding of the day lighting systems appears to suggest that unlike in the case of solar cell technology where solar energy is trapped in a panel and stored in a battery for subsequent use, this one taps sun energy for instant lighting.

Mr. Rosemann expects the prototypes to run for couple of years. Since the Swedish company that had supplied the sulphur lamp for the prototypes has withdrawn the product from the marketplace, he feels further possibilities may be explored before the actual commercialisation of the day lighting systems.

K. T. Jagannathan Recently in Berlin

http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2001/04/05/stories/08050004.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 05, 2001


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