the light produce enough power to charge a battery, which is wired to the cell through a diode, which keeps the battery’s current from flowing back through the solar cell at night. During the day, the battery charges, reaching it’s maximum charge depending on weather and seasonal conditions.

At night, the solar PV cells stop producing power. This causes an LED to be activated by a photoresistor, which changes its resistance based on the amount of light that has come in contact with it; a lot of light has almost zero resistance and conducts electricity very well. A controller board accepts power from the solar cell and battery, as well as input from the photoresistor. When the photoresistor detects little or no light, it activates the battery and the light switches on.

A more advanced solar technology called hybrid solar lighting (HSL) is currently being developed for interior lighting via solar energy. This process collects sunlight and routes it through optical fibers into buildings where it is combined with electric light in “hybrid” light fixtures. By combining electric and solar power, sensors would keep the room at a steady light level by adjusting the electric lights based on available sunlight. Hybrid solar lighting doesn’t necessitate any energy conversions, thereby making the process more efficient.

Once hybrid solar lighting is perfected, this highly energy-efficient technology would use sunlight to illuminate interior spaces while generating electricity in the process. It would also make better use of sunlight in it’s natural form and lessen the amount of energy used by electric lights, which accounts for more than a third of all electricity consumed for commercial use in the U.S.

In order to be effective, HSL would use a specially designed collector to focus full-spectrum sunlight into optical cables that would then deliver the light to fixtures throughout a building. It would also convert sunlight to electricity much more efficiently than conventional solar technologies.

In a solar lighting and power system, roof-mounted concentrators would collect solar energy and distribute it through the optical fibers to hybrid lighting fixtures in a building’s interior. This system is still being developed, but once this is accomplished the amount of energy that would be saved would be substantial.