Solar Power that's always on
This is the kind of energy story I've been looking for:
California's biggest energy utility announced a deal Monday to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity from a startup company that plans to beam the power down to Earth from outer space, beginning in 2016.
There are just so many difficulties with huge arrays on earth: darkness, the need to keep them clean, the sheer size of the arrays (and the consequent NIMBY and environmental impact battles the size causes). Arrays in space just avoids all of that. Sure, there are costs (lifting them into space), but it just seems like a more workable idea.
Not to mention that it seems very Jetsons-y to me :)
Comments
A disaster in the making...
[Randal L. Schwartz] April 14, 2009 11:43:14.531
You think a downed power line is bad? Just wait until the beam gets out of alignment and starts burning up random spots. Or an airplane or bird goes through the beam.
This has trouble written all over it.
Re: Solar Power that's always on
[ Terry] April 14, 2009 12:05:22.201
Comment by Terry
This is a rather old concept. I studied it while in college, before 1975. It converts light to microwaves and beams them to earth. The microwave beam intensity is supposed to be low enough so it is not a hazard, you don't want birds dropping out of the sky when they fly overhead.
Payback Issues
[W^L+] April 14, 2009 12:25:23.981
A quick comment during my lunch:
Maybe it won't happen immediately, but people will figure out how to capture some of that power without paying the utility. I really cannot see technological usage restriction ("DRM") preventing people from cutting PG&E out of the loop.
Secondly, there will be a comprehensive environmental review process. There will have to be. I would expect it to be on the federal level (and corresponding national environmental reviews in other countries). Directing a signal that powerful toward earth is sure to stoke fears of cancer, of interference with terrestrial radio-frequency communication, as well as (accidental or by computer vandals in China or Russia) concentration and redirection of this energy causing fires and destruction. Foreign nations will fear that it is a Pentegon-controlled weapon in disguise.
It is a good idea in theory. We'll have to see how it fares in reality.