Category:Energy

Space Based Solar Power

The DOD National Security Space Office (NSSO) has published a feasibility study on Space Based Solar Power (SBSP). It says that advances in photovoltaics, electronics, robotics and space-based construction, coupled with the increasing importance of energy security and climate change, now make SBSP a serious option. Kilometre-sized solar panel arrays, probably in geostationary orbit (GEO), would gather sunlight and then transmit the electrical power to Earth via laser or microwave beams. A kilometre-wide band at GEO receives a solar flux in one year of about 212 terawatt-years, comparable to the energy in all known recoverable conventional oil reserves (250 TW-yrs). The report recommends the US government should invest $10bn over the next decade to build a test satellite to beam down 5 to 10 MWe. This would be large enough to provide proof-of-concept and would also have great value for military logistics by delivering power flexibly to remote locations. The biggest challenge in building a full system would then be how to launch so much mass into orbit, even if most came from the Moon.

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