Reflect Orbital – Sunlight After Dark

Is it snake oil? The amount of power that would be delivered to the ground seems quite minuscule based on that small orbital mirror size.

In fact it should be over three orders of magnitude lower than that of normal sunlight on the solar panel, which is roughly 1000 W per square meter.

Here are the calculations:

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Assumptions:

Solar constant: 1366 W/m²

Mirror area: 100 m² (10 m x 10 m)

Reflectivity of aluminized Mylar: 90%

Atmospheric attenuation: 70% of reflected sunlight reaches Earth’s surface

Spot diameter on Earth: 500 meters

Spot area on Earth: π × (250 m)² ≈ 196,350 m²

Calculation:

Total incident power = 1366 W/m² × 100 m² = 136,600 W

Reflected power (after reflectivity) = 136,600 W × 0.90 = 122,940 W

Power reaching Earth’s surface (after atmospheric attenuation) = 122,940 W × 0.70 = 86,058 W

Power per square meter actually delivered at Earth’s surface = 86,058 W ÷ 196,350 m² ≈ 0.438 W/m²