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Norwegian Town Using Sun-Tracking Mirrors To Light Up Dark Winter Days
oritonic1 writes "During their long, cold winters, the Norwegian town of Rjukan doesn't enjoy much by way of daylight—so the town (population 3,386), installed three giant sun-tracking mirrors to shine a steady light over a 2000 square foot circle of the town square. From Popular Mechanics: 'Call it a mood enhancer. Or a tourist attraction. But the mirrors, which will be carried in via helicopter, will provide an oasis of light in an otherwise bleak location at the center of the 3500-population town.
Three mirrors with a total surface area of about 538 square feet will sit at an angle to redirect winter sun down into the town, lighting up over 2150 square feet of concentrated space in the town square. A similar idea exists in the Italian village of Viganella, which has used brushed steel to reflect light since 2006.'"
Rjukan is also the site of the museum of industrial labour, which is located in Vemork. In addition to being a very early heavy water plant which was sabotaged by the Resistance during the second world war to hinder the Nazi nuclear bomb project, it also currently hosts an exhibit of what is probably the world's only remaining Univac 1108 mainframe.
toresbe
Consistancy is key.
Here in the southern UK, it snows sometimes. Not a lot. Maybe for a week, no more, and only every two years - often we go a winter with no snow at all, or just a very light dusting.
When it does snow, everything stops. Roads are impassible, schools close, almost total shutdown of the country. Why? Because we don't keep an army of ploughs and gritters and a big stockpile of salt around for something that happens so rarely and is over so quickly.
Likewise with very hot summers. The crushing heat can reach thirty celcius. In somewhere like the southern US they'd laugh at that - but in those places, everyone is used to it, with buildings made to stay cool and every home fitted with air-con. We melt for about a week a year, so we just endure - the awkwardness is over too soon to justify building houses that stay cool (And thus cost a lot more to heat in winter) or installing expensive aircon systems.
The city planners should have thought about this before deciding to put the town there.
I can vividly see you confronting the city planners and getting dismissed not only with a nice REJECTED rubber stamp in runic script stamped on your petition, but also with a nice complimentary blood eagle.
Ezekiel 23:20
Do you know how most cities got sited? Availability of water, good harbors (very important historically), workable land and other needed resources.
There is almost never a set of city planners that sit down and weigh all the pros and cons of a location ... they just tend to initially happen as people find what they need and start laying down roots.
If you live in the North, you take what you can get. These guys are just trying to improve a little on that.
Washington DC used to be a malarial swamp and New Orleans is apparently below sea level. Did the city planners do a piss-poor job? Or were there other features that made it desirable?
Nobody comes along and says "we're going to build a thriving city here" -- well, China has apparently done it, and they're empty. I suspect most cities started in a much more random and organic manner.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.