Rattenberg: Whole town with SAD

Bit old news this (from the end of 2005) but I’ve just come across it and it fascinated me. Rattenberg, near Innsbruck in Austria sits so much in the shadow of the Rat mountain that it gets very little light in winter. It’s not that uncommon in the Tyrol region as many towns and villages were built on the dark side of mountains to help shield themselves from attack.

But there’s an interesting project going on in Rattenberg to cope with the lack of light that many of the residents suffer from. The town is planning on installing 30 specialized rotating mirrors (heliostats) designed by a company who specalises in lighting design (Bartenbach Lichlabor) to reflect sunlight into the town in winter. The town will get help from the EU who will pay half the $2.4 million cost of the project.

Now with my trusty calculator I make that more than $5400 a resident for the population of just 440. Maybe they should just invest in communal light boxes or offer them to every household. I wouldn’t like to be paying their council tax or whatever the local income tax is over there!

Anyway it will be interesting what the effect is this winter when the project is finished and see if the rate and seriousness of Seasonal affective disorder is reduced in the population. It may not even help that much as SAD is partly caused by staying indoors more in winter….but it will be a great tourist attraction anyway.

For more information see Mirrors shed light as winter grips small town