Satellites to beam sunlight down to earth at night, says California startup

A California-based startup plans to send satellites with mirrors in space to reflect sunlight onto solar farms at night. They aim to boost solar energy production by providing sunlight after dark

A California-based startup, Reflect Orbital, is planning to do something that has never been done before. The company aims to sell sunlight after dark.

It aims to launch a series of satellites with large mirrors that can reflect the sunlight into specific places on Earth. The company aims to maximise solar farms' productivity by offering on-demand sunlight, especially at night when the solar panels otherwise remain inactive. 

However, the idea of reflecting sunlight at night is not a new one as Russia's Znamya project experimented on it in the 1990s to illuminate specific regions with limited sunlight during nighttime. Unfortunately, the idea didn't succeed due to numerous technical glitches and eventually, the idea was dropped. 

 

Ben Nowack and Tristan Semmelhack, the founders of Reflect Orbital, aim to create a constellation of satellites to reflect sunlight on Earth at night. Nowstak, the CEO, has spoken about the technology's potential to revolutionise the solar energy industry ensuring continuous power generation even during nighttime hours.

The company has recently completed a successful prototype test using a hot-air balloon that was equipped with sunlight onto a mobile solar farm. The next goal for the company is to deploy satellite-based mirrors which will reportedly begin next year. 

The company website mentions that the application for their sunlight services will shut down this October with limited availability. Each deployment of sunlight will last approximately four minutes covering an area with a diameter of about three miles. 

Recently, the company CEO, Nowack, shared a video on X demonstrating how this could work in practice. A person could be seen using an application to select a location on the map and once he hits it, the actual physical space he is standing on is illuminated.  Then the camera moves upward and shows a light shining from above.

New things to play with on the website! pic.twitter.com/NJcOjFSblf

— Ben Nowack (@bennbuilds) August 22, 2024

There's something magical about the idea of having the power to bring actual sunlight to a location just by moving your finger around a virtual app. But is it actually possible? Is it smart to do? And would it really look exactly as portrayed in the video?

The idea of bringing light at night sounds interesting as you can bring actual sunlight by just moving your finger around a virtual app. The only question is will it work as shown in the video? The answer to these questions doesn't seem possible, at least in the near future. 

The CEO himself mentioned in one of his tweets later that it was only for demonstration purposes and still a lot of work needed to be done. 

The company so far has tested its mirrors on a hot balloon and no satellite has been sent to space yet. The founder of the company said a few months back that the company plans to launch its "first very large deployable reflector" in the next "four to five months." The next big step for the company is to get into space.

The company splits its website into two parts; Lightning and Energy. The first one focuses on bringing sunlight to Earth after dark, while the second part aims to bring the sun's energy to a solar farm at night.