Satellite mirror tech firm aims to provide more sunlight to dark areas

An American company wants to use satellite technology to put mirrors in space to increase the amount of sunlight in parts of the world during winter.

A U.S. company is developing satellite technology to reflect sunlight down to Earth in hopes of providing energy to solar farms and maybe even more light during dark evenings.

It could have benefits during Canada’s long winters, something punctuated Sunday by the time change from daylight savings to daylight standard time, but the costs might outweigh them.

American company Reflect Orbital hopes to one day help by sending large mirrors into orbit to reflect sunlight down to Earth.

“We got a lot of submissions from people in northern latitudes about whether or not this can be provided in winter to help with vitamin D reception,” Emily Bilbao of Reflect Orbital told CTV News Edmonton on Friday. “We’re not making any health claims, but we’re happy to try those demos.”

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The company plans to demo the technology next year, starting with energizing solar farms in the evening.

The concept already has some people concerned, including Phil Langill, a physics professor at the University of Calgary, who calls it “a recipe for disaster on many, many different levels.”

He says beyond adding traffic to orbit, issues around light and air pollution, as well as ecological problems, could arise from adding light at times when it naturally wouldn’t exist.

“It would be weird – the brightness would not be constant through the night,” Langill told CTV News Edmonton. “There would be fluctuations up and down; there would be activity all around you in the sky.

“It would be a strange world.”

Despite the challenges ahead, the company stands behind its technology.

“We’re really confident that when we show the demo next year, show the precision and control, and explain what works over time, that there’s actually a world where these things can co-exist quite well.”