A start-up bets on orbital mirrors to stretch solar power past dusk

An orbital mirror array could reflect sunlight onto solar farms after sunset, but astronomers warn of the cost to the night sky.

A start-up plans to test whether mirrors placed in orbit can reflect sunlight down to solar farms on the ground, extending the hours those farms can generate power past sunset. The idea targets one of solar energy's hardest limits: the sun sets, and generation stops without storage.

If it worked, reflected sunlight could let existing solar installations produce into the evening, when electricity demand often peaks. That would stretch the value of infrastructure the world is already building, rather than requiring new generation from scratch.

The same reflected light that helps solar panels would also brighten the night sky, and astronomers have raised concerns about the effect on ground-based observation — a shared resource that belongs to everyone. This is an early-stage effort, and the trade-off between more clean power and a darker sky is not resolved.

We are working only from the sector metadata here; the source was unreachable, and the specifics of the array, its scale, and its timeline sit with the original reporting.

Source: Nature