Lighting the sunless town
Giant mountains block the low winter sun for months in the tiny town of Rattenberg, nestled in the shade of the 3,000′ ‘Stadtberg’ and ‘Rat’ in Austria. Now modern improvements in the manufacture of large mirrors have brought the cost of heliostats – giant rotating reflectors – down to the level where this town can be affordably lit throughout the winter.
Better living standards and reduced electricity costs in shady Austrian towns are not the only uses for modern cheap heliostats – in the future, these devices could allow cheap, environmentally friendly lighting for office buildings, basements, underground cities and even homes.
Posted by akaDruid on 08 Apr 2006 at 02:04 pm
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[...] Following the news I reported in April about Ratternburg in Austria’s plans to install giant heliostats to light the village during the dark winter, here is a report of a succesful install in Italy: [...]
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