Many of the specifics (share price and quantity issued) aren’t yet known, but ATS Automation has finally filed its preliminary prospective with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company plans to raise $250 million (U.S.) by having an IPO of its Photowatt Technologies division, which would include France-based Photowatt (maker of conventional solar PV panels) and Cambridge, Ontario-based startup Spheral Solar (its next-gen technology based on silicon beads). ATS issued a press release today to acknowledge the filing.

So far, the market seems to like it. By noon the stock was up by more than 12 per cent.

CNET’s News.com has a piece about a company called Fiberstars, which makes lighting systems based on fiber-optic cabling. The company claims its system consumes two-thirds less energy than the best flourescent lighting systems on the market. Basically, an external high-intensity light bulb shines a light into the end of a cable and the lighting is carried along the length of the cabling toward its destination. Swimming pool makers like it because all the electronics is external to the water so all you have is a glowing fiber-optic cable in the pool. Click here for a pic.

Another piece profiles a company called Sunlight Direct, which does pretty much the same thing but uses natural sunlight (basically, a 40-inch mirrored dish that follows the movement of the sun all day) as the source light. This system provides internal lighting during the day only, so I imagine an existing lighting system is needed for night time. Click here for some cool pics.

I should also redirect attention to an article I wrote this spring about an Ottawa-based company called Group IV Semiconductor that is using fiber-optic technology used in telecom network routers as the basis of a new silicon-based light bulb design that the company claims will outperform LEDs and make compact flourescents obsolete.