Norway Town Winter Sun Appears For The First Time (VIDEO)
The appearance of the Norway Town winter sun brought delight to locals. Three giant mirrors have been erected on the mountainside above the Norwegian industrial town of Rjukan to bring sunlight to a town known for its winter darkness.
The three mirrors, installed on the mountain wall about 1,500 feet above the Rjukan market square, are 550 square feet in total, and will become operational on Wednesday.
They are designed to catch the sun’s rays and reflect them down on Rjukan in an elliptical shape of about 6,500 square feet.
The reflected light will be between 80 and 100 per cent as bright as direct sunlight.
The mirror has two axes on which it moves and a computer program that will follow the sun’s path during the entire year.
Local artist and resident Martin Andersen who conceived the idea, calls it a “health project to promote wellbeing”.
Rjukan—some 109 miles from the capital Oslo—is situated along the floor of a narrow valley.
During the long winter, from September to March, the town of approximately 3,000 residents lives in perpetual shade.
Oystein Haugan, the sun mirror project manager in Tinn Municipality and the man responsible for developing the project is confident they will make a significant difference.
“It’s important to have the sun in the winter time and in this town we don’t have the sun for six months of the year in winter time and the people up here they want to have the sun. We’ve made a cable car to get up to the mountains, to take people quickly up to the mountains but now we also have a 100 years old idea, that we have made realistic. We take the mirror and reflect the sun down to us. It’s a crazy idea but it’s funny and I think the people like it.”
The concept itself is not new.
It was first floated back in 1913 by a local factory worker.
A local industrialist considered the idea but opted instead for a gondola that could carry sun-starved residents up to the mountaintops for a dose of natural light.
The gondola is still in use, but local officials hope their new mirrors will attract more visitors, help retain residents and reflect a pro-active attitude that others could emulate.
VIDEO