Artificial lighting does indeed require a huge amount of energy, however there are some things which make it appealing:

- You can't have your agriculture growing against a window; it needs to be done on the shielded interior of the ship/base, lest it be killed by a Solar Proton Event.

- Ease of harvesting isn't that big an issue, on this small of a scale -- but the volumetric efficiency of the plant, is. If only the canopy of the vegetation is productive, then that's a big wast of space.

But it should be possible to get the best of both worlds -- light strips of natural sunlight! Sunlight can be captured in small parabolic reflecors and piped through fiber-optic lines to light strips on the interior. This system is already in use in some Japanese office buildings!

Cheers,

Nathan