Borrowing Sunshine

For three long months each winter, the sun stops shining on the tiny town of Rattenberg, Austria. From November to February, says Newsday, all of the sun’s rays are blocked by a 3,000-foot hill called Rat Mountain. The complete lack of winter sunshine has been blamed for high local rates of depression, and many younger residents are moving away. Now an Austrian company has come up with a novel cure for Ratenberg’s dark winter.

At a cost to the town of $2.4 million, it is installing 30 rotation mirrors, called heliostats, in a nearby village; the light will reflect off these mirrors and land on “hot spots” in Rattenberg, where people can congregate and soak up some rays. Villagers will even be able to see the setting sun on the sides of some buildings, mimicking a normal daily cycle.