The sun sets and night falls sooner or later for each of us, but a startup wants to change that. California-based Reflect Orbitals has developed a way to sell sunlight after dark.
Reflect Orbitals is building space mirrors to reflect sunlight onto solar panels at night. The goal is to maximize solar farms’ energy production. According to their official website, you can also book a spot of light for yourself.
The startup’s CEO Ben Nowack believes “sunlight is the new oil and space is ready to support energy infrastructure.”
“By precisely reflecting sunlight that is endlessly available in space to specific targets on the ground, we can create a world where sunlight powers solar farms for longer than just daytime, and in doing this, commoditize sunlight,” they said in a YouTube video.
“The Russians launched a reflector satellite [Znamya] in the 1990s, and it worked, but we’ve come a long way since then.”
The startup believes it can significantly boost the output of these farms with a constellation of simple reflector satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
The company’s first satellite is currently under development, but it has already achieved success in real-life experimentation with a hot-air balloon equipped with a large mirror.
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The startup is certainly different and more innovative than all the AI products we’ve been seeing lately. The most recent to make headlines was theFriend AI necklace, while in the past, we’ve seen others like theRabbit R1andHumane AI Pin.
Anurag Singh was a Tech Writer on Dexerto’s UK team, expertly covering laptops, smartphones, and wearables. He covers the biggest tech news from major brands such as Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft. He also has bylines at Android Police, Neowin, MakeTechEasier, Gizmochina.
