Beaming Solar Power from Massive Satellites Gains Global Momentum
"A single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous Earth orbit
experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of
energy contained within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves
on Earth today."
2007 report released by the Pentagon's National Security Space Office
"The conditions are ripe for something to happen on space solar power," said Charles Miller, a director of the Space Frontier Foundation, a group promoting public access to space told CNN. "The environment is perfect for a new start."
Diminishing oil supplies and soaring prices, a heightened global awareness of climate change and worries about natural resource exhaustion have recently prompted a renewed interest in beaming solar energy back to Earth. "The country that takes the lead on space solar power will be the energy-exporting country for the entire planet for the next few hundred years," Miller said.
Russia, China, the European Union and India, according to the Pentagon report, are interested in the concept. And Japan, which has been pouring millions of dollars into space power studies for decades, is working toward testing a small-scale demonstration in the near future.
The solar power satellite concept was first described in 1968, but
an effective method for transmitting power with microwaves was not
described until 1973. The logical extreme of this idea was described in
the 1941 story Masquerade: science fiction Grandmaster Clifford
Simak situated a giant photocell on Mercury and then beamed solar power
throughout the solar system: This was really free power, easy power,
plentiful power. Power carried across millions of miles on Addison's
tight-beam principle.
A major barrier is a lack of cheap and reliable access to space, a necessity for launching hundreds of components to build what will be miles-long platforms. Developing robotic technology to piece the structures together high above Earth will also be a challenge.
Miller, of the Space Frontier Foundation, said he thinks it will be possible in the next 10 years.
"We could see the first operational power satellite in about the 2020 time frame if we act now."
Pranav Mehta director of India operations for Space Island Group, a California-based company working to develop solar satellites sees the solution for India's chronic electricity shortage, one that does not involve power plants on the ground but instead massive sun-gathering satellites in geosynchronous orbits 22,000 miles in the sky.
"The satellites would electromagnetically beam gigawatts of solar energy back to ground-based receivers, where it would then be converted to electricity and transferred to power grids. And because in high Earth orbit, satellites are unaffected by the earth's shadow virtually 365 days a year, the floating power plants could provide round-the-clock clean, renewable electricity."
"This will be kind of a leap frog action instead of just crawling," Mehta told CNN.
Posted by Jason McManus.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/05/30/space.solar/index.html?eref=rss_space
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