Street children in Philippines and World.

I would like Mr Vasanthkumar Mysorematt of U-SEE to see beyond one village and consider the possibility of lighting up the whole planet by ujsing ginat mirrors to reflect sunlight from the eastern longitudes to those on the west. So China can light up till its dusk much of Central Asia, and Central Asia can light up Eastern Europe, which, in its turn, can light up France, Germany and England. And there can be mirror clusters in the middle of the Atlantic to help Manhattan switch off its steet lights and even domestic and office interior lights for quite some time.

But I think the entire exercise of mirroring the dark makes little economic sense. Most of domestic/commercial energy is consumed not in lighting but in thermal functions, like air-conditioning; mechanical functions, like running escalators and underground trains; and in running office equipment, like photo-copiers, computers, programmed glow signs on signboards, etc. To convert reflected light into energy for such diverse uses will require very advanced photovoltaic cells with prohibitice capital costs.

Sumit Mitra