Solar power is awesome and we need more companies investing into this technologies but this project by Reflect Orbitals seems like a phenomenally bad idea. They are aiming to use orbital reflectors to shine sunlight on solar panel farms to extend the time they can generate power. In addition they are also looking at providing nighttime lighting i.e. an impossible to turn off bright light in the sky to light up a construction project or event.
Reflect’s ultimate vision is to boost solar power production on Earth. It aims to position mirrors in orbit to beam down sunlight to solar farms just before dawn, and just after dusk—effectively increasing the total time during which a solar farm can generate electricity.
In the meantime, the company has other plans to bring in revenue. Since its founding in 2021, the company has received 260,000+ requests for nighttime lighting. Future services could include illuminating overnight construction projects, public events, disaster relief efforts, and defense operations.
We already have problems due to light pollution such as health problems, confusing the circadian rhythm of animals and humans and many many more such problems. This system will light up areas without the consent of folks living there just because there is an event going on nearby. It will have a massive impact on the nocturnal animals, astronomers amongst others. But from a money minded perspective it makes complete sense as it allows companies to work through the night never mind the impact on others.
Even if we go with their press release and assume that they are only going to use it just before dawn and just after sunset it will still have a massive impact. Birds will not know when to fly back to their nests because it would still be light, nocturnal creatures will have less time to hunt/mate/survive because the length of the dark time is reduced.
The sad part is that they have raised $20 million already on this claiming to be ready to launch the first set of satellites next spring to illuminate 10 locations around the world. Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be much interest around this technology at this time but lets see. Hopefully that will continue and this nonsense shutdown fast.
Source: payloadspace.com: Reflect Orbital Raises $20M Series A
– Suramya