Feasibility study of low cost solar energy day lighting system via optical fiber: A case study of Rabat city in Morocco

In Morocco, more than 85% of energy in use is imported. The Moroccan Government has established different energetic strategies, such us encouraging energy efficiency in building and diversifying the electricity sources by using renewable energy. Rabat region is located in the center of the country and it has an important solar potential. To use rationally and economically such energy, it is necessary to have diversified solar systems. One of them is the Low Cost Solar Fiber Optic Day lighting (LCFOD) system. The originality of this system is the direct use of solar radiation in opposed to the conventional ones based on the conversion of solar energy into electricity and then again into light. Unfortunately, this system is still unknown and unusable in Morocco; this is due to several factors. One of them is that no scientific study has been dealt before with the performance knowledge and characteristics of the LCFOD system using Moroccan data. For this, the primary objective of this paper is to predict the feasibility and potential of the low-cost system of day lighting in Morocco. The secondary aim is to show the behavior of such system in a chosen workplace, considering the illumination capacity and its variation with solar irradiance data. This will lead to the determination of the average energy saving, the cost effectiveness of the proposed system and the payback period. According to the calculations conducted, the energy efficiency of the system is 60 %. Moreover, the system can deliver more than 600 lx of illumination in optimal solar conditions for an office of 70 m2 located in Rabat city. The results of this paper can contribute to the extension of the use and the great knowledge of this system.