Only graduates of the École Polytechnique would have the audacity to reinvent the window. It was on the benches of the École Polytechnique that Florent Longa and Quentin Martin-Laval had a bright idea. As the students sat in dark auditoriums, the two apprentice engineers lamented having to spend so many hours under artificial light. How could photons from the sun reach rooms in the basement, or deep into the interior of a large building? In 2010, taking advantage of university projects they had to do, the two entrepreneurs investigated this question, combing through the literature, until they came across a Japanese innovation dating back to the 1980s. This old technology, now in the public domain, captures sunlight in a panel on the roof and uses lenses to concentrate it down a fibre optic bundle. The Japanese supplier's product had been far too expensive and the two engineers took up the challenge of making it more readily accessible.

In 2011, they crossed paths with the young banker Stéphanie Lebeuze, with whom they created Echy, a year later. It was time to develop their first product, a 6m² panel capable of transmitting up to 15,000 lumens over a distance of 30m to light up an area of 50m².

More efficient than the original system, their system turns out to be six times cheaper per square metre, its creators pointed out. Even so, the company, which is positioning itself first and foremost in the office, supermarket and commercial building lighting market, cannot yet play the price card.

Theoretically, the invention can reduce energy consumption by up to 40%. However, Stéphanie Lebeuze acknowledges that only 30% of the typical working day can be lit up in this way because the panels only work in good weather. Additional LED lighting is necessary and increases the cost of the investment. That is why Echy prefers to use the argument that it is better for the well-being of its users, an issue increasingly being taken into consideration by architects and employers.

The start-up's claim is that natural light "strengthens the immune system and helps prevent premature ageing". Reading the list of risks hanging over the "slaves to neon", which include diabetes, insomnia, obesity, and even depression, will bring you out in a cold sweat.

This health argument has already been exploited by other products, such as light therapy lamps, which are very popular in the open spaces of Western offices or in the Nordic countries. Based on this argument, the company has managed to regain its competitiveness: "office designers often include atriums in their plans to bring natural light into the heart of buildings, which generates additional building costs that we can help reduce ", points out the co-founder. Architects have often made a habit of locating meeting rooms in the middle of these open spaces, where employees generally spend less time than in their offices, in which they have more windows and doors. Even there, the Echy panel brings in a little of the outdoor environment. "During the day, the nature of light changes, becoming warmer or colder", said Stéphanie Lebeuze.

This is how the company has convinced Carrefour to test the device in the reception area of the Carrefour Market in Bonneval (Eure-et-Loir). It says it has installed a dozen other systems, in the sorting room of a post office, an AEA laboratory, in offices and the Arbois Science and Technology Park near Aix en Provence. The trio of entrepreneurs is now looking to sign "framework agreements" with big supermarket retailers, for example, to gradually roll-out its solutions. The start-up is also working on a panel that is twice as efficient, to compensate for the drop in efficiency of the fibre optics over distance. Echy is also starting to dream of capturing up to 10% of the commercial lighting market one day.

mquiret@lesechos.fr

@MQuiret

For further information: http://www.echy.fr/

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