New startup wants to sell you “sunlight after dark” using mirrors

The sun sets and night falls sooner or later for each of us, but a startup wants to change that. California-based Reflect Orbitals has developed a way to sell sunlight after dark.

Reflect Orbitals is building space mirrors to reflect sunlight onto solar panels at night. The goal is to maximize solar farms’ energy production. According to their official website, you can also book a spot of light for yourself.

The startup’s CEO Ben Nowack believes “sunlight is the new oil and space is ready to support energy infrastructure.”

“By precisely reflecting sunlight that is endlessly available in space to specific targets on the ground, we can create a world where sunlight powers solar farms for longer than just daytime, and in doing this, commoditize sunlight,” they said in a YouTube video.

“The Russians launched a reflector satellite [Znamya] in the 1990s, and it worked, but we’ve come a long way since then.”

Solar energy accounted for some 5.6 percent of electricity generation in the US in 2023, up from a 4.8 percent share a year earlier. There are more than 5,000 solar farms across the States, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The startup believes it can significantly boost the output of these farms with a constellation of simple reflector satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).

The company’s first satellite is currently under development, but it has already achieved success in real-life experimentation with a hot-air balloon equipped with a large mirror.

On its website, Reflect Orbitals states that you can also book a spot of light. You can fill out a form, which is due by October 23, 2024, and the sunlight after dark will be delivered starting in Q4 2025. It will be available for only four minutes and cover a diameter of five km.

The startup is certainly different and more innovative than all the AI products we’ve been seeing lately. The most recent to make headlines was the Friend AI necklace, while in the past, we’ve seen others like the Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin.