How space-based solar power will solve all our energy needs

Humanity ’s need for vigour is growing at an amazing pace . aggregate this with an ever - dwindling supplying of fossil fuels , and it becomes painfully readable that something innovative and powerful is required . There ’s one high-pitched - technical school proposal that holds wondrous hope — an idea that has been around since the tardy 1960s . Here ’s how place - base solar power will eventually resolve all our Department of Energy need .

Assuming that economical progress and globalisation keep on at its current pace , we ’ll need to grow twice the amount of zip that ’s consumed today by the 2030s — what will progress to a massive 220 trillion kW hours per class . And by the end of the one C , we ’ll need four times the current rate of consumption .

Just as significantly , we ’re also go to have to give up the fogy fuel habit — and not only because it ’ll finally persist out . grow CO2 emissions are wreaking mayhem on the Earth ’s atmosphere , what ’s creating environmentally injurious side - effects at a rate faster than expect .

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Moreover , if greenhouse gas are to be bring under control over the course of the next several X , we ’ll need to get upwards of 90 % of all our vigour from either renewable or nuclear sources .

While there are a number of proposal on the table for how we might be able to encounter these challenges , none really appear to be truly workable .

Except for solar powered satellites .

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A closer spirit at a place - based root yields a lengthy list of advantages .

Solar powered orbiter do n’t bring out any greenhouse gases , nor do they take up valuable tangible estate on Earth . Once the initial costs are met , they would be relatively cheap to keep ; the solar modules used for generating solar get-up-and-go have a long service life sentence , not to mention the astounding return on invested capital that would come from a virtually straight-out vigour reservoir .

to boot , they ’re not constrained by night / day cycles , the weather , or the change season . And indeed , they would be much more efficient than any kind of terra firma - establish post . The appeal of solar energy in distance is seven times big per unit arena than on the surface of the planet . Moreover , the amount of solar energy usable up there is astonishing — on the order of one million million of times greater than what we take in today ; the Earth receive only one part in 2.3 billion of the Sun ’s yield . The potential for scalability is enormous , to say the least .

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Solar powered artificial satellite wo n’t be prone to terrorist attack and they ’ll foreshorten geopolitical pressure for crude oil . grant to futurist Keith Henson , outer space - based solar could be used to power vehicle , like electric cars , or by enabling the output of synthetic fuel — which at a penny per kiloWatt hr would ensue in petrol that costs one dollar sign a gallon .

At the same time , space - base solar would provide true energy independency for those nations who choose to implement it . And on top of that , the energy could be exported to nigh anywhere in the world ; it would be especially worthful for quarantined areas of the globe , let in Africa and India .

last , space - based solar power would also yield tremendous benefits to human and automatic space geographic expedition , include the powering of off - planet colony on the Moon , Mars , and space stations . It could also process as the first seed in the development of a Dyson Sphere — a massive array of solar collectors that would totally envelope the sun at a distance of about 1 AU .

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Back in the tardy 1960s , Peter Glaser proposed the thought of solar powered satellites ( SPS ) , what he envisioned as space - based photovoltaics that could reassign muscularity wirelessly back down to Earth . His design called for a large platform positioned in blank in a high Earth range that would ceaselessly collect and convert solar energy into electricity . In turn , that power would be used to drive a wireless power transmission ( WPT ) that beams the solar vigour to receiving stations on Earth — what would be comprise of massive receiving dishes .

A figure of visionaries have updated Glaser ’s visual sense to include the role of a microwave wireless power vector . This would affect large distinct structures ( like a solar regalia and transmitter ) that would have to be meet in blank space . SPS systems could also include a modular electric / semiconductor diode array optical maser WPT concept , need self - assembling solar mogul - optical maser - thermic modules . Other designs call for an super modular microwave WPT SPS “ sandwich structure ” construct , requiring a pregnant number of small solar power - microwave oven - caloric modules that would be robotically assembled on field .

But to make it happen , we ’ll need to arise low - cost , environmentally - friendly launching vehicle . Eventually we ’ll send the materials up in a distance lift , but until then we ’ll have to come up with something more effective . gratefully , SpaceXand other private firms are already working on more effective launch solution .

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to boot , we ’ll require tumid scale construction and operations stations in eye socket — space - ground workplaces that would be more complex , large , and more energy - require than the ISS . They would provide for the production of large , simple panels , that are easy to gather and consist of many very percentage . finally , it may be possible to construct an entire flotilla of these solar gatherer using materials pull out from asteroids .

As word gets out about the potential for SPS , and as the technology catches up to the melodic theme , a number of innovation proposals have been put forth ; this is n’t just idle speculation any longer — it ’s something that ’s just about ready for quality - time .

For model , there’sSPS - ALPHA(Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large PHased Array ) which is being modernize by NASA ’s John Mankins . Using a “ biomimetic ” overture , the labor calls for huge platforms constructed from X of thousands of little elements that could drive home ten to thousands of megawatt via wireless power contagion .

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It would do this by using a large array of individually keep in line thin - cinema mirrors fit on the curved airfoil of a satellite . These adjustable mirrors would tap and redirect incoming sunlight toward photovoltaic cells stick on to the rear end of the solar power satellite ’s large array . The Earth - pointing side of the raiment would be tiled with a accumulation of microwave - index transmission system instrument panel that engender the coherent , low - intensity beam of radio frequence energy and transmits that energy to Earth .

And what ’s particularly coolheaded about this construct is that it would start the construction of a solar - power satellite that can be assembled alone from individual scheme elements that librate no more than 110 to 440 pounds ( 50 to 200 kilograms ) , allowing all piece to be mass produced at humiliated cost .

There ’s also Japan’sJAXA ’s SBSP System . The Japanese space agency want to get a epitome up and running by 2020 , and a in full operational system by 2030 . Their system is designed to black market in a stationary orbit about 22,400 miles above the equator where it will take in the sun with Cr - enhanced solar jail cell . The SBSP System will transmit free energy to Earth using laser shaft at about 42 % solar - to - laser push efficiency . Each satellite will beam the energy to a 1.8 - mi broad receiving station that ’ll produce one gigawatt of electrical energy — what ’s enough to power 500,000 homes .

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Other examples include theSun Tower , theDyson - Harrop Satellite(which would harness solar wind power),Solar Disc , and theEuropean Sail Tower SPS .

SPS systems have been hash out since the seventies and have been reviewed periodically by various stakeholders in United States and elsewhere — but the idea has never been seen as something that ’s cost effective or technologically feasible . These view are change , however .

Last year , theInternational Academy of Astronautics published an exhaustive reportlauding the benefit of blank space - base solar mogul , urging the international community to take the prospect in earnest . The report contained over a dozen recommendations on how to get start , while predicting that space solar power will be technically practicable within 10 to 20 year using technologies that already exist .

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The authors also noted that the task would be economically feasible in the next several decades , but under specific conditions having to do with future vigour markets and the willingness of government to get begin ( what could be actuate by environmental concerns ) .

Additionally , flight experiments will be required , as will be the ironing - out of any policy or regulatory issues — what could by all odds take some time . Needless to say , some chemical group and individuals may take great exception to the estimation of having microwave and laser beams shooting down onto the Earth ’s surface — not to note the hair-raising voltage for the weaponization of this technology .

And in terminus of expense , the IAA proposed a price - share-out schema in which country would work together to bring the Mary Leontyne Price down — what could be as much as a trillion dollar .

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