Great Scott!
Posted on 07/24/2008 4:27:55 AM PDT by shove_it
AS we face $4.50 a gallon gas, we also know that alternative energy sources — coal, oil shale, ethanol, wind and ground-based solar — are either of limited potential, very expensive, require huge energy storage systems or harm the environment. There is, however, one potential future energy source that is environmentally friendly, has essentially unlimited potential and can be cost competitive with any renewable source: space solar power.
Science fiction? Actually, no — the technology already exists. A space solar power system would involve building large solar energy collectors in orbit around the Earth. These panels would collect far more energy than land-based units, which are hampered by weather, low angles of the sun in northern climes and, of course, the darkness of night.
Once collected, the solar energy would be safely beamed to Earth via wireless radio transmission, where it would be received by antennas near cities and other places where large amounts of power are used. The received energy would then be converted to electric power for distribution over the existing grid. Government scientists have projected that the cost of electric power generation from such a system could be as low as 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is within the range of what consumers pay now...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I don't know that much about the subject, but I know that my own house uses 2000-3000 Watts at times, maybe more.
If there's a beam carrying that much power from there to here, then I dang sure don't want to walk through the beam.
So if it's going to carry power to YOUR house as well as mine, then we're gonna need a bigger beam.
Even if they paint it orange and tell pilots to avoid it, it won't be long before there are fried eagles falling and we all know how THAT will turn out.
Change that to read:
And then a miraculous jump in technology happens...
Collect and beam to Earth via radio. ("wireless radio" is redundant) So, we can now modulate radio waves with sun energy? How does that work?
(A lot of) Government scientists = "What do you want to me to prove today?
Great Scott!
This article needs to be filed under “Aw jeez, not this sh!t again”.
You can count on it.
Solar Power Satellites can find niche applications in space, maybe beaming power to a future moon base, but it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever be competitive with a simple coal or nuclear plant.
Even if we did build these, we still need a viable method to power cars.
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=farming-solar-energy-in-space
The US is now a firmly entrenched service-based economy. We don't need to do the skull work that something of this magnitude would require. Let the Japanese carry the water. If it works, great! I'm sure their worker-drones will happily be exploited by this new industry the same way their auto workers, shipyard workers, and consumer electronics workers have been.
Worse case, they succeed and build a transmission line across the Bering Sea so that we end up sending our energy dollars to Asia instead of the Arabs. Who really cares. Either way, our publically schooled Luddites without opposable thumbs will still be able to hunt & peck the controls on their MP3 players and Blackberries.
It's all good.
I think Bussard's IEC fusion approach a far more likely candidate.
Don't look now, but that is about to happen. Nanosolar's "line printed" CIGS cells (14-15% efficient) will drop the price to $1/watt or less. They're already selling cells to "utility size" installations, and their next production plant is aimed precisely to the "roof-top solar" house market.
and the greenies thought windmills were bad for birds. wait til they start squawking about the starlings getting fried...
And another nation could “shoot” our energy supply right out of existence. Better have a back up plan.
Did you say “sharks with friggin’ Lazer beams on there heads” ?
..uh, do biscuits come with those fried starlings?
” their next production plant is aimed precisely to the “roof-top solar” house market”
....to me, that makes a lot more sense than beaming solar back to earth from outer space...
Clearly, all we need is Multivac to figure out the logistics for us.
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