Japan Hopes to Have Solar Power Transmission in Space by 2030

"Blue Team Power Node, under construction."

These orbit-to-ground power beam concepts always make me want to play onslaught mode in Unreal Tournament.

ridiculous and dangerous

This definitely seems a little ridiculous. I'd like to see some #s. I mean, is the amount of sunlight that gets blocked out of the atmosphere really that much more that it would surpass the energy lost in the 2 conversions (solar -> laser/microwave -> electricity) AND the energy lost in transit? What about the energy needed to put the installation up there combined with routine maintenance missions? What about cost?

Obviously they're going to address these issues, but without looking at the #s, I could only guess that it would be a waste. I think putting those 10s of billions of dollars into solar research might be a better idea.

But either way I guess it's nice to see more focus on solar energy.

I've never been too keen on space-based solar. The argument is always that in space you can get solar 24 hours a day, and more power per unit area. But one problem with the laser idea is that in order to keep aligned with a ground based target, you need to be in geostationary orbit. So for part of the day you will be in the Earth's shadow, right? Or am I missing something?

Also, in terms of cost, it would be far cheaper to keep the panels on the ground, and build enough excess capacity that the unused electricity can be converted into a fuel, like hydrogen or methanol, that can be used at night. This will become even more true as panels get cheaper, since that will happen much faster than any increase in the ability to transport material into space.

And for some (perhaps far-fetched, perhaps not) speculation about the future:

Maybe decades from now someone will build a cheap way to get to space. But then the traffic in space will be much higher, and we might not want to give up large columns of airspace for massive laser beams.

And if we make it to a future where we have the technical capability to build space-based solar, wouldn't it make more sense to use the power in orbit? If we can build 10,000 ton power stations, we can build orbiting cities, lunar bases, and in general have need of power in space, not just from space. Think also of how much more eco-friendly it might someday be to do all our manufacturing, recycling, and so on in space rather than on the ground. This, of course, assumes we can move all that matter around cleanly with minimal environmental impact, but it is possible.

As efficiency of power usage rises on the ground (virtually certain, as it has been happening for the past few decades) and population growth levels off (likely, I think) as developing countries undergo demographic transitions to smaller family sizes, will it really be necessary to import power from off-world?

And if we are imagining a world where we can do all of these things, think of the scale of power involved. Human consumption of clean energy might then be measured not in gigawattts or terrawatts, but petawatts (current world primary energy consumption is about 15 terrawatts, not including the sunlight used by agriculture). The amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface is about 120 petawatts; the energy reaching the upper atmosphere from space is about 174 petawatts
.
And in that case, where we need very large amounts of power, any meaningful amount of power imported from space would disrupt the world's heat balance; it could lead to a second global warming crisis one or two centuries from now. Ground-based solar doesn't do that, because the energy was going to be here anyway.

Nice trick, but never ever going to work. First of all... if it did work, can you imagine a stray energy beam from space hitting a small town in Arkansas?

Secondly, what are the effects in our atmosphere when a direct energy beam rips through it? What is the energy loss of that beam if it does get through?

Lastly, it is not cost effective. It would take trillions upon trillions of dollars to get a station like that ready for commercialized production of energy(not including repair costs), couple that with high cost of high efficiency solar cells and you will never recover that money invested.

They need to work on InGaN solar cell to get over 60% efficiency and stop toying with outlandish ideas like this.

Nice trick, but never ever going to work. First of all... if it did work, can you imagine a stray energy beam from space hitting a small town in Arkansas?

Secondly, what are the effects in our atmosphere when a direct energy beam rips through it? What is the energy loss of that beam if it does get through?

Lastly, it is not cost effective. It would take trillions upon trillions of dollars to get a station like that ready for commercialized production of energy(not including repair costs), couple that with high cost of high efficiency solar cells and you will never recover that money invested.

They need to work on InGaN solar cell to get over 60% efficiency and stop toying with outlandish ideas like this.

@Anthony... for the record, it is far fetched and flawed speculation on your part.

Ummm...to all commentors who think this wouldnt work:

If you dont have a PhD in the physical sciences, then I wonder why you think you are smarter than 180 Japanese scientists.

This is nothing new. I don't know how the Japanese can claim that they are on the forefront of this issue. I heard this topic mention about 2 years ago by an internationally acclaimed scientist from New York University.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pdTb5xzUXJM

In any case I want to know what effect a high intensity solar energy beam would have on the atmosphere. At first glance it seems like a cool idea, but if you actually start thinking about it it kind of sounds dubious.

@ricachica

If you know the way research is funded you understand that researchers have to jump on any trendy idea to get some money for continuing their job.

These are probably laser scientists trying to imagine a possible way of connecting their ideas with the renewable energy bandwagon.

It will never work, to send 1 ton of material out of the atmosphere requires so much energy that you will never recover it with solar panels.

Like so many things, we have the technology to do it but politics have misdirected our resources.

NASA had an extensive study in and projected construction in the 70s but their funding was taken away.

In short, it's a great long term project but it should be done with lunar materials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_satellite

@ ricachica ,

Sometimes, people, whether they are scientists or politicians, do jump the gun and don't think of the consequences. They leave it for later because the discovery or invention is just too exciting and so the drool.

Just look at the rush into biofuel.

@ ricachica ,

Sometimes, people, whether they are scientists or politicians, do jump the gun and don't think of the consequences. They leave it for later because the discovery or invention is just too exciting and so they drool.

Just look at the rush into biofuel.

This is a concept that is already behind schedule and will be a major source of energy in the future. Arthur C. Clark proposed this concept along with a proposal for an economical mega method for accessing space in his book “Fountains of Paradise.” Princeton Professor Gerard K. O’Neill, lead in depth studies in the concept of “Power Sats,” working out a complete concept using the Moon as an economical source for the required raw materials. The concept was very well worked out, in depth and in great detail in the late 1970’s. Energy was not to be transmitted using coherent microwave beams from a MASER. This has been tested by bouncing MASER beams off the moon reflector and the transmission efficiency was found to be in the mid 90’s percentile range. The idea was presented to the US congress to be established as a national plan for becoming a major source of energy in the future and under American control. After careful study, Congress postponed a decision until a time in the future when we were beyond the cold war. The project was deemed to be too expensive in an age when it was though more important to fund the cold war. The US Congress has never revived the concept to the best of my knowledge. Like the Super Collider, the idea is now being taken over by a number of other countries and it looks like the US might be left out again.

Don’t take this idea lightly. A number of major corporations have already done considerable work on this concept and made sizable investments into refining the technology. At this point in time, the only issues are not technical. They are political. It will happen and most of the people reading this will live to see it. Power Sats are capable of providing substantial amounts of very clean energy. Remember – Solar energy is 10 times stronger as soon as you get above earth’s atmosphere! When an agreement can be reached with the entities that control fossil fuels, and the world’s major governments, it will be done, and quickly.