The first real test of the system comes in September when the angle of the sun begins to put Rjukan in the shadows, which lasts until March. But the mirrors, which will be carried in via helicopter, will provide an oasis of light in an otherwise bleak location at the center of the 3500-population town.Three mirrors with a total surface area of about 538 square feet will sit at an angle to redirect winter sun down into the town, lighting up over 2150 square feet of concentrated space in the town square. this coming winter, the Norwegian town of Rjukan will have one bright spot: a town square illuminated by sunlight bounced off giant mirrors placed atop the town's neighboring mountains.Call it a mood enhancer.
– The 3,500 residents of Rjukan, Norway, live in shadow for five months every winter, thanks to surrounding mountains that block the sun—but this year, they'll have at least one cheery spot when the shadows start to descend in September. The town square will be lighted via huge mirrors, which were delivered by helicopters to the mountains earlier this month, Popular Mechanics reports. Sunlight will bounce off the 538 square feet of surface area provided by the three mirrors to light a 2,000-square-foot circle in the town square, which the city is turning into an ice skating rink. (Gizmodo points out that the light apparently won't bring much heat with it.) The $835,000 "Mirror Project" is pretty high-tech: It will use mostly wind and solar power, and will be run by a computer in the town hall that will monitor the movement of the sun in order to figure out how the mirrors need to be positioned at any given time. Gizmodo explains that these heliostatic mirrors are more commonly found on solar farms. Neat side note: Sam Eyde, the industrialist who basically founded the city when he put his hydroelectric factory there, wanted to install mirrors almost 100 years ago but couldn't carry out the plan due to limited technology; he built a cable car up the mountains instead. (Click to read another story that hinges on the absence of sunlight.)