Town Is Looking for a Ray of Light

The sun has stopped shining in Rattenberg. But with the aid of a few mirrors, the winter darkness that grips this small town could soon be brightened up with pockets of sunshine.

That’s because sun is plentiful less than 10 minutes’ walk from the town and from 3,000-foot Rat Mountain, which blocks its sunlight from November to February each year.

The solution: 30 heliostats, essentially rotating mirrors, mounted on a hillside to grab sunshine off reflectors in the neighboring village of Kramsach.

Bartenbach Lichtlabor GmbH, the Austrian company behind the idea, has used mirrors for lighting projects around the world -- bouncing sunshine into European basements and railroad stations and illuminating mosques in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

The firm says the reflector technology is advanced enough to justify its first attempt to bring sunshine into a village.

But it’s expensive. The European Union is footing half the $2.4-million bill, and the company says it will pay the $600,000 planning cost, gambling that success will attract more business.

“I am sure we will soon help other mountain villages see the light,” Managing Director Markus Peskoller said.

In the Tyrol region of the Alps, about 60 communities suffer the same winter darkness as Rattenberg. Peskoller said six other towns in Austria and neighboring Switzerland have expressed interest.

The technology requires pinpoint beaming, and even the most modern mirrors have slight distortions and are vulnerable to strong winds.

Peskoller said those problems can be compensated for. But it would take a mirror the size of a football field to light up all of Rattenberg, “and we cannot cover the mountain with mirrors to bathe the whole town in light.”

So Lichtlabor plans to create about a dozen “hot spots” -- areas not much bigger than a front yard -- scattered through the town, where townspeople can gather and soak up rays. The mirrors also would reflect at various times of day onto building facades to show daylight slowly turning to dusk.

Rattenberg was founded in the 14th century in a spot between the mountain to the south and the Inn River to the north, a spot that offered protection from marauders.

But as such dangers diminished, dozens more settlements sprang up. Some, like Kramsach, are just half a mile away, and all enjoy a few hours of sun on a clear winter day.

Rattenberg’s demographics reflect the pull of the sun.

The town, 25 miles east of Innsbruck, is Austria’s smallest -- and getting smaller. Its population has dropped by about 20%, to 440, in the last two decades, and both Peskoller and Mayor Franz Wurzenrainer attribute that at least in part to lack of sunshine.

The mayor remembers how in the 1950s, when not everyone had a car, townspeople would trek over the bridge on the Inn River to Kramsach on a Sunday “to tank up on some sun.”

In a poll four years ago, about 50% of Rattenbergers listed lack of winter sunlight as their biggest disadvantage.

“We all complain, although those who have lived here into old age can put up with the problem,” said Maria Auer, 91. “But the young folks are moving away.”