New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) In a bid to improve energy efficiency in buildings, the Centre has signed an agreement with a start-up to harvest daylight for illumination of basements.

The Technology Development Board, a statutory body under the Department of Science and Technology, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyderabad-based Skyshade Daylights Private Limited in the presence of Science & Technology Minister Jitendra Singh.

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TDB will give Rs 5 crore to Skyshade for developing new technologies for basement illumination on a 24x7 basis, Singh said.

He said the company was engaged in design and build operations of large skylight domes for building atriums and solar thermal technologies.

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The start-up has now come up with two more innovative solutions, namely human centric-climate adaptive building facades and central integrated daylighting system, Singh said.

He said these two systems will give a new horizon to daylighting and these products are easily affordable, adaptable and economically viable.

Singh said daylighting basically meant bringing natural sunlight inside the rooms.

He said the solar energy spectrum has 45 per cent energy as visible light and this can be used to harvest building illumination for about nine to 11 hours a day.

The minister said the technology used was completely indigenous, economically viable and easy to deploy and needed minimal maintenance.

Moreover, the proposed technologies can harvest huge quantities of sunlight for a building and make it available for illumination, reducing electrical lighting energy consumption by 70-80 per cent.

The minister said using daylight harvesting technologies could also reduce air-conditioning costs.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)