Posted on 04/14/2009 1:00:50 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
California's next source of renewable power could be an orbiting set of solar panels, high above the equator, that would beam electricity back to Earth via a receiving station in Fresno County.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has agreed to buy power from a startup company that wants to tap the strong, unfiltered sunlight found in space to solve the growing demand for clean energy.
Sometime before 2016, Solaren Corp. plans to launch the world's first orbiting solar farm. Unfurled in space, the panels would bask in near-constant sunshine and provide a steady flow of electricity day and night.
Receivers on the ground would take the energy - transmitted through a beam of electromagnetic waves - and feed it into California's power grid.
The idea has been discussed for decades. It appeared in science fiction as far back as 1941 and later received serious study by NASA and the Pentagon. At times, it has been dismissed as fantasy.
But San Francisco's PG&E considers it realistic enough to support. ..
...
"We'd all read about it, thought about it, and it seemed to be a good, next challenging project for the space industry," he said. "The timing is right."
Not a 'laser death ray'
He also dismissed fears, raised in the past, that the transmission beam could hurt birds or airline passengers who stray into its path. The beam would be too diffuse for that.
"This isn't a laser death ray," Boerman said. "With an airplane flying at altitude, the sun is putting about four or five times more energy on the airplane than we would be."
Placing solar panels in orbit would solve two of the biggest problems facing the solar industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
As someone who’s been to Fresno I expect those solar panels will be stolen soon.
Solar power sats were proposed by Heinlein back in the 40s or 50s. They were completely possible in the 1960s.
Envirowackos will probably block this one, too.
Yup, Arnie’s gonna have to open up child garment sweat factories using child labor to pay for it too.
I think it would be fantastic if they ended up in the wrong orbit and sent blinding light into algore’s bedroom windows!
Is everyone in California on mind altering drugs?
YESSSS!!! About time!
I’ve been waiting since we launched Skylab for this: If we can put something as big as Skylab in orbit, we can sure put a powersat in GSO!
Question... how do you “beam” electricity from a satellite to earth? Radio signals, I understand...
that’s really interesting—
is it cost-efficient enough, though?
I have always wondered how you get the electricity to the ground without it finding it’s own way to earth like a lightening bolt. Even if you could get the flow of electrons to follow a straight path for hundreds of miles without insulation wouldn’t a plane crossing the path be caught in a virtual welding arc?
This is actually a good idea, but I fully expect the libs to start claiming that it harms birds or some crap.
You do it via high energy photons, then convert those to electricity on the ground.
I wonder what the power estimates are for this. If it’s good, I’d support it fully.
Heinlein envisioned the solar power sats firing microwave beams back to the receiver stations. You would have to route aircraft around them, of course.
You can, of course, convert microwave radiation back into electricity.
The only thing that really screws with the cost efficiency picture is the cost per pound of lofting stuff into orbit. Solar power sats are going to be *big* things to have to send up.
Don’t know if it washes economically, but one plus would be that it could send power 24hrs/day, which land based solar cannot.
Count me in as a skeptic...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.