Screenshot of the landing page of the Reflect Orbital company [File]
| Photo Credit: Reflect Orbital
Reflect Orbital, a lighting and energy company, wants to sell customers sunlight at night for their needs as it works on refining its light-harvesting technology in order to power solar farms and provide paid solar energy after dark.
The company was co-founded by engineer Ben Nowack, who has been with SpaceX, and flying vehicle enthusiast Tristan Semmelhack, who has experience with developing drones.
“Reflect Orbital is selling sunlight using a constellation of in-space reflectors,” said the company about itself on the official website.
In March this year, the company’s co-founders said they were developing a constellation of revolutionary satellites in order to sell the light to solar farms.
“We think sunlight is the new oil and space is ready to support energy infrastructure. This airborne test was the last piece needed before we launch above the atmosphere,” said Nowack on X on March 13, adding that he wanted to “commoditize sunlight.”
Reflect Orbital has invited users to apply for sunlight through its website, though it is not yet shipping its “product.”
The company warned that applications would close on October 23 this year at 12 AM PT, and that delivery would begin only in the fourth quarter of 2025. Per the application form, users can try to access four minutes of light for a 5 km diameter.
On August 22, Nowack posted a video that showed a person toggling the light selection on the company’s website map to illuminate their real time location at night. However, the founder did not specify whether the effect was truly achieved by re-directing sunlight with the company’s tech, or just by shining a light for promotional purposes.
Others have criticised the idea, claiming that allowing people to access sunlight at night on the basis of their whims with just their phones could increase already elevated levels of light pollution, and disturb people in the area who are trying to sleep – not to mention wildlife.
According to Nowack, there is a high level of interest in the company’s product.
“Wow this is insane — 31,768 applications for our sunlight. 10x more than yesterday. It went up by several hundred as I typed this. So good!” he posted on X on August 26.
Reflect Orbital noted on its website that it was “aggressively hiring.”
