Norwegian city spent half a million dollars on mirrors reflecting the sun

Whatever they say about the delights of the autumn-winter period, you can get fed up with them very quickly. When the sky above your head looks more like a gray sheet, you must admit that it is tiring and not conducive to a joyful state of mind. And if the population of Russia has to cope with dull weather, usually no more than six months a year, then in some cities in the world people are completely deprived of happiness basking in the sun. It should be said that the human body is practically not able to function normally without a certain dose of sunlight. We desperately need vitamin D, on which not only the mood of a person directly depends, but also many important metabolic processes.

One of the cities, whose 3,368 residents have been accustomed to not seeing sunlight for months, is Ryukan, located near Oslo. This place is known as one of the darkest cities on the planet.

Due to the dense ring of mountains around from September to March, the city is completely devoid of direct sunlight. But even complete darkness, with the exception of December and January, also does not occur here due to the midnight sun characteristic of Norway. It is the lack of direct sunlight that makes Ryukan unique and is considered its distinguishing feature.

In order to alleviate the existence of the inhabitants of Ryukan a little, local authorities allocated more than half a million dollars to install special mirrors.

Such solar mirrors are installed at an altitude of 450 m above the city and literally catch the sun's rays. As a result, the central city square is illuminated by sunlight at any time of the year.

Of course, not without criticism. Skeptics called this project an ordinary trick and a waste of money for the sake of a tiny site, lit by the sun.

Proponents of the trick respond that, in addition to the fact that the mirrors gave people such a long-awaited sun, now they also attract a huge number of tourists to Ryukan who want to see how Norwegian ingenuity works.

In fairness, it should be noted that the idea of a solar mirror was born from Rukan's ancestor Sam Eide more than a hundred years ago. He realized the importance of sunlight and tried to create a device that appeared in his imagination, but, alas, then his attempts were unsuccessful.