TECHNICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF FIBER-OPTICAL SOLAR LIGHTNING SYSTEMS

• Date: 2026
• Main Authors: Rubanenko , О., Аlipatova, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: Ukrainian
• Published: Institute of Renewable Energy National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine 2026
• Subjects: Energy decentralization; concentrator tilt angle; luminous flux; one-way analysis of variance; automated solar tracking mechanism.
• Online Access: https://ve.org.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/626
• Journal Title: Vidnovluvana energetika

This article presents a technical, experimental, and statistical analysis of a new lighting system designed for industrial buildings and critical infrastructure. The development of this autonomous, low-power system is a priority in the context of Ukraine's national objectives for energy decentralization and enhancing infrastructure resilience, as lighting can account for up to 20–40% of electricity consumption in industrial facilities. The system is designed to overcome the disadvantages of previous designs, such as highly unstable luminous flux, non-uniform light transmission, and reduced efficiency due to light scattering.  Experiments were conducted at the Berlin University of Applied Science using a solar simulator [1, 11] with a standardized irradiance level of 1000 W/m². These tests focused on quantifying how the tilt angle of the solar collector influences the transmitted luminous flux. Statistical analysis, performed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), unequivocally proved that the tilt angle has a statistically significant impact on the output luminous flux.  The results showed that efficiency drops sharply with angular displacement: the luminous flux decreases from 57.7 lumens at 0° tilt to approximately 0.008 lumens at 90°. These findings confirm that, to ensure the practical viability and optimal performance of the system in real-world conditions, the implementation of an automated solar tracking mechanism, which dynamically adjusts the concentrator's position, is necessary. While adopting tracking entails trade-offs, such as increased mechanical complexity, higher capital costs, and greater energy consumption, it is a necessary condition for large-scale or mission-critical applications.