Mirrors to brighten up village
Print Edition
Residents of a remote village nestled in a steep-sided valley in southern Norway are about to enjoy winter sunlight for the first time thanks to giant mirrors.
The mountains that surround the village of Rjukan are far from Himalayan, but they are high enough to deprive its 3,500 inhabitants of direct sunlight for six months a year.
That was before a century-old idea, as old as Rjukan itself, was brought to life: to install mirrors on a 400-meter high peak to deflect sun rays towards the central square.
“The idea was a little crazy, but madness is our middle name,” said Oeystein Haugan, a local project coordinator.
“When Rjukan was founded, it was a bit crazy to start a community in the middle of nowhere with this massive hydroelectric plant, huge pipes and a railway line to transport fertilizer to the rest of the world,” he added.
It was first mooted by Norwegian industrialist Sam Eyde, at whose behest Rjukan was established.
Eyde founded Norsk Hydro and wanted to take advantage of an enormous waterfall to produce chemical fertilizers.
From just 300 inhabitants spread out across scattered farms in 1900, the population grew to 10,000 by 1913 and the ambitious industrialist endorsed a project to deflect sun rays into the village.
“It’s one of the few projects that Eyde was unable to complete, due to a lack of appropriate technology,” mayor Steinar Bergsland said.
Instead he built a cable car, which is still in use, to allow his employees to recharge their vitamin D levels with sunlight on a mountain top.
An artist Martin Andersen, who arrived in the village from Paris, picked up the idea around 10 years ago. Five million kroner (US$849,000) was raised for the project and now three 17-square-meter mirrors tower over Rjukan village.
A computer will control the mirrors. The inauguration is scheduled for next week.
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