This Man Wants to Put Mirrors in Space to Create Solar Power at Night
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A man named Ben Nowack is trying to put mirrors in space to generate solar power at night. Nowack is a 26-year-old inventor and entrepreneur who is now the CEO of Tons of Mirrors. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and has even made an appearance on Mythbusters.
Now, with his company, Tons of Mirrors, Nowack wants to use satellite-mounted reflective surfaces to redirect sunlight to earthbound solar panels at night. Although he is not the first person to come up with the idea, he is trying a different approach where he uses new technology to make sunlight cheaper than previous ideas.
In an interview with Motherboard Tech by Vice, Nowack said that he began thinking of how to solve the issue of solar power at night and how he could continue to use the sunlight.
“If you solve that fundamental problem, you fix solar everywhere,” he said.
Tons of Mirrors was founded to replace fossil fuels by making solar energy cheaper and more accessible. Tons of Mirrors now plans to create and install large mirrors and a collimator device on the International Space Station (ISS). The setup would be able to redirect sunlight to panels on earth at night.
To begin his work, Nowack is trying to raise $5 million to put one of these tiles on the International Space Station. From there, he can test it out and then finally build a bigger satellite
Projects worldwide are developing new ways to utilize solar panels and move away from dirty fossil fuels. Architecture students in Barcelona just built a solar-powered greenhouse that uses 50 percent less energy than it produces. Virginia is transforming abandoned coal mines into solar farms, and a start-up is helping retrofit old buildings in Brooklyn to use clean energy. The latest climate report from the IPCC is a final warning for governments around the world about global warming, so it’s great to see companies taking the initiative and working towards a renewable future!
