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Norwegian village of Rjukan innovates with solar mirrors that capture sunlight in winter for less than 600 thousand euros, inspired by a XNUMXth century project.
In Norway, a country located close to the North Pole, daily sunlight hours are significantly shorter compared to countries located closer to the equator. This characteristic is due to the inclination of the earth's axis, especially evident during winter in North Pole, when the sun's rays reach these latitudes with less intensity. Faced with this challenge, the city of Rjukan adopted an innovative solution: the installation of mirrors capable of reflecting sunlight, thus compensating for the limited natural exposure to the sun.
Mirrors were placed on 600 m² in Rjukan
This small village in Norway is located in a deep valley in the province of Telemark. There, the mountains block sunlight for six months of the year. The small town was founded 1 century ago, and currently has 3.500 inhabitants who can see the sunlight through mirrors placed on the mountain.
When we watch a documentary or see an image on the internet, the Earth is always seen with an inclination on its axis of 23,5°. As we stated above, this inclination means that, at this moment, there is practically no sun at the north pole.
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Several towns and cities close to the poles suffer from total darkness during winter, Rjukan is one of them. Only when summer approaches does the sun begin to rise over its valleys and mountains. Thanks to the mirror design, 600 square meters were indirectly illuminated by sunlight.
The three mirrors (Heliostats) were placed on a 400 meter mountain, positioned by a helicopter and controlled to follow the ellipse of the sun. The idea came from Martin Andersen, a Parisian artist who was inspired by Sam Eyde, who wanted to do the same at the beginning of the XNUMXth century.
Mirror project in Rjukan cost just 600 thousand euros
As Eyde's technology was not that advanced at the time, the first cable cars in Scandinavia, called Krossobanen, which took the inhabitants of Rjukan to the top of the mountain to sunbathe and stay healthy.
The project cost five million crowns, around 600 thousand euros. Additionally, the solar energy captured by the mirrors is used to power their tilt trajectory as they follow the passage of the winter sun over the Norwegian sky.
Although the main idea came from Sam Eyde, it was Viganella, a city in northern Italy, that pioneered the installation of mirrors to capture sunlight. The designer was Giacomo Bonzani, who managed to install a mirror measuring 40 square meters, 8 meters wide and 5 meters high.
The famous Italian mirror that attracts hundreds of tourists was produced by a company from Huelva. Its inauguration took place in 2006 and was called “the meeting of light”. This peculiar project means that thousands of inhabitants of Piedmont and Rjukan will not spend so many months without sunlight.
Discover the solar energy tower installed in Israel
In addition to the mirrors and Rjukan, a solar power tower was installed in 2019 in Ashalim. Call of Eye of Sauron, this project bears the nickname inspired by the film “Lord of the Rings”, due to its size, but mainly due to its intense brightness.
There are about 25 towers of this type in the world and the project cost US$800 million and, in return, the government promised to buy electricity from the mirror tower at a rate of about 23 cents per kilowatt-hour.
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