With the help of SKF actuators mirrors bring winter sun to Norwegian town for the first time

A small Norwegian town lives without sunlight through the winter months. Now, with help of mirrors and modern technology, a beam of light will be directed at the town square.

Mirrors reflect the sunlight to the town square
Photo by SKF

The small town of Rjukan is located in a valley between tall mountains in the south of Norway. This could be just another industrial town, if it weren’t for the beautiful 104-meter waterfall called Rjukanfossen, and the fact that the surrounding mountains completely block the sun for six months a year. That’s right. No direct sunlight.

Mirrors reflecting sun in Norway
In 1913 the local industrialist Sam Eyde had the idea to put mirrors on top of the tall mountains to reflect the sun and finally give some solar relief to the people of Rjukan. Unfortunately, the project was too complicated at the time, so it was abandoned.

Now, 100 years later, the mirrors are actually being put in place and sunlight will for the first time shine on the town square during winter. Solspeil, as the project is called, stands on the mountain 450 meters above the town. The mirror area is in total 51m2 and sends an ellipse shape of about 600 m2, at an effect of 80-100% of the sunlight. At SKF we provided Solar Linear Actuators CASD-60 and other technologies to track the sun, and to make sure the mirrors reflect as much light as possible.

For further information, please visit: www.skf.com

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