From New Atlas

Germany isn’t exactly famous for its sunshine, so to help with the country’s commitment to investigating renewable energy, the German Space Center(DLR) has constructed the world’s largest artificial Sun. Making its public debut today in Jülich, North Rhine-Westphalia, the three-storey “Synlight” electrically-powered sun lamp will be used for various research projects, including developing processes for producing hydrogen fuel using sunlight.

The Sun is one of the greatest potential energy sources available, but developing new technologies to exploit this potential can be hampered because our parent star is a very finicky worker. It refuses to work at night, dislikes cloudy days, doesn’t do as well at higher latitudes, and in some parts of the world it disappears entirely for months at a time.

To provide a more reliable and controllable substitute, scientists and engineers have built their own artificial Sun for laboratory work. Instead of using a giant ball of fusing gas 93 million miles away, DLR has built a huge device that works like a backwards parabolic reflector.

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