Introduction on Harvesting Sunlight Sam Tang

Lighting is a dominant element in our daily life, no matter at

home or in workplace, which contributes to a significant portion of
energy consumption in many countries. However, only 5% of energy
supplied to lighting are converted to light energy, while most of the
energy is wasted in the form of heat energy. On the other hand, light
source from sunlight which is free of charge is seldom being exploited
for lighting, but blinds are placed to block sunlight instead. In order to
save energy and make good use of energy form sunlight, a sunlight
collector with a broad curved mirror is invented to concentrate and
absorb energy of sunlight. Meanwhile, engineers encounter several
obstacles including the expensive cost of glass mirror. To reduce cost,
plastic was the only alternative material of mirrors but it was found
that normal plastic was incapable of withstanding the extremely high
temperature of sunlight and the durability of ordinary plastic was too
short. A breakthrough was made by engineers to invent a new material
made by conventional plastic which can endure heat form sunlight and
retain high quality for over 20 years. As a result, the cost of a sunlight
collectors is reduced to one-third of that made by glass. The sunlight
collector becomes affordable for most household and companies so
that it is hoped that more sunlight can be exploited for lighting to
reduce energy consumption by conventional lighting.