TARGET 151021

VIGANELLA LIVES IN LIGHT

The village of Viganella

Viganella is a very tiny town high in the mountains about 130 km ( miles) north of Milan, Italy. It is a quaint, quiet place to live, full of happy people. Well, happy, that is, in the summertime. But the town is located on a flat outcropping of a mountain on the north side of a very steep valley. The southern side of the valley is another steep mountain which, in the wintertime, blocks off all sunlight. The valley is so deep that the surrounding mountains cast a long shadow over the entire village completely blocking the sun for three long months during the winter. The sun disappears on 11 November and does not reappear until 2 February.

The wintertime problem
"It's like Siberia," one of the village's nearly 200 residents said.

The villagers of Vaganella have accepted their fate for centuries, but with modern technology, someone finally said, "Too much is too much." A local engineer and architect came up with a brilliant idea: "If giant mirrors can be used to reflect the sun's heat for things like Solar One", let's also use a giant mirror, but ours will reflect sunlight and warmth into the village."

The proposed solution
The proposed solution

In 2005, with the support of Pierfranco Midali, the mayor of Viganella, 100,000 Euros were raised and the construction of the mirror started. In November 2006, the 40 square meters mirror, weighting 1.1 tons, was installed on the opposite slope of the mountain at an altitude of 1,100 meters.

Building the mirror

Building the mirror
The installation of the mirror

Of course, the mirror is too small to light up the whole town so Viganella's main square in front of the church was chosen.

The sun on the town

Like the mirrors for solar generating plants, the town's mirror is computer-operated so it follows the sun's path throughout the day, reflecting sunlight onto the village square half a mile away and lighting up an area of 300 square yards for at least six hours a day.

The computer controlled mirror

After the mirror was installed, a positive change came over the mood and behaviour of the inhabitants. Pierfranco Midali, the mayor, gives one example related to the Sunday Mass: "Iin winter time, people usually go back home right after the end of it, as opposed to the summer. But when, thanks to the mirror, the sun shined on the church and the village square, people did stay outside to visit and talk with each other."

And even on the coldest winter days in the mountains, even the people who live away from the town square can still look out their windows and see the sun.

The Sun on the mountain
The sun on the mountainside

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