The First Practical Heliostat

The Boston company Practical Solar has introduced the first ready-to-go, practical heliostat system for reflecting sunlight into buildings. This sunlight can be used for daylighting of spaces that previously did not have direct solar access and for providing solar heat through a window or skylight. “We harvest sunlight,” says inventor and company president Bruce Rohr. “We can deliver it where you want it.”

Rohr had originally intended his heliostat system to be used for indirect space heating and water heating. After failing to raise money to develop advanced components for those applications, however, he shifted to simpler lighting and direct heating applications. The rest will come later, he says. While the heliostat relies on sophisticated engineering and software to make it work, the end product is extremely simple in its function, he told EBN.