That place on earth, where the sun does not shine for 6 months, provided light by installing huge mirrors on the mountains!

Rjukan, Norway, a small industrial city in Norway, is a living example of what wonders the combination of human determination and science can do. Situated in the deep valley of Telemark, this city is famous for its beauty, but a geographical problem here troubled the people for years. Due to being situated deep in the huge and high mountains, not a single ray of sun could reach here for 6 months of the year (from September to March). This entire city remained immersed in deep shadow and darkness for half the year. But the picture here has changed since 2013. Now the residents here enjoy the sunshine with the help of three giant mirrors (Solspeil) installed on the top of the mountain. These magical mirrors have been installed on the top of the mountain, about 450 meters above the city.

These three large ‘heliostatic’ mirrors direct sunlight to the main square of the city. It keeps an area of ​​about 600 square meters drenched in sunlight throughout the day. The most amazing thing is that these mirrors are not ordinary mirrors, rather they are controlled by computers. These mirrors change their direction every 10 seconds, so that as the sun moves across the sky, the reflection of its light remains on the exact same square. Now the people of Rajukkan can sit in the square and sunbathe even in winter. The surprising thing is that the dream of lighting this city was seen 100 years ago. Rajukkan’s founder and industrialist Sam Eade had started a fertilizer factory here.

He chose Rajukkan because it had a 104 meter high waterfall, from which it was easy to generate electricity. Ede spent twice as much money as Norway’s total national budget in developing this city. At that time he wanted to install mirrors on the mountain, but such technology did not exist at that time. As an alternative, he built a Gondola named Krossobanen in 1928, so that people could pay money to go up the mountain and enjoy the sunshine. This Gondola is still operational today. This old dream was revived again in the year 2005 by an artist named Martin Anderson, who was a resident of this city. Martin had heard that small mirrors were being used to grow grass in a stadium in Arizona, USA.

He also read about the town of Vignella in Italy, where, like Rjukkan, mirrors were installed to avoid the reflection of the mountains. Martin convinced the city administration and raised an investment of about ₹ 5 crore (5 million Norwegian krone). Most of the money in this was given by the same company (Norke Hydro), which was formed by Sam Eade. Today this ‘Sun Mirror’ project of Rajukkan has become a center of attraction for tourists from all over the world. People are drawn to see how man has overcome the limitations of nature and arranged light for himself. Where earlier people lived in depression and darkness for half the year, now they are seen smiling in the sunlight. This story proves that if a person has the right technology and strong intention, he can show a mirror to the mountains.