UK-based company Space Solar is partnering with Reykjavik Energy and Icelandic sustainability initiative Transition Labs to develop a space-based solar power plant that can deliver about 30 megawatts of electricity – potentially enough to power between 1,500 and 3,000 homes – from 2030. The system will collect sunlight in space through solar panels and then transmit it as radio waves at a specific frequency to a ground station, where it will be converted to electricity for the grid.
The satellite is expected to be scalable and quite big. Even if a full version of their CASSIOPeiA power array is not built, we are talking about the heaviest single object in space that is not a space station, and when all the arrays are splayed out, much larger than the International Space Station.
The company aims to have a scaled-up version of the system in space by 2036, which would supply gigawatts of electricity.
… everyone gets solar power from space.
Given their abundance of geothermal energy (they keep their footpaths ice-free year round and still have enough to power energy-hungry facilities such as aluminium smelters and data centres), Iceland is probably the country that least needs this.
Question, if electricity can be transmitted as a radio signal, why could we generate power here on earth in areas where renewables are super abundant (turbines in the ocean, giant waterfalls, deserts for solar, et cetera) and transmit that around the earth to areas where it’s needed? Why does it have to be in space for this to work?
Also, can someone please explain how the fuck we wirelessly transmit electricity, and how it’s different from the Tesla thing?
They had these in a game I used to play, I wanna say Sim City 2000? It was called a microwave power plant and I think occasionally the beam coming to Earth would miss the power plant and start a fire, but my memory’s a bit fuzzy.
This sounds fucking wild. I’ve heard about doing this before, but I assumed we were far off actually trying it in any practical sense
I hope this actually happens
- capture light in space
- shine light down to earth
- capture light on earth
- sell electricity for profit
simple as
Yeah im curious about it but it sounds like lossy-er solar farming… Perhaps its about surface area and around the clock availability?
Now i imagine pirate power radiostations…
Yeah im curious about it but it sounds like lossy-er solar farming… Perhaps its about surface area and around the clock availability?
Presumably. Just the ability to run it at maximum efficiency for 24 hours would probably more than cancel out conversion losses.
So i should start building my free energy pirate station soon? :p
First space death ray confirmed. Exciting news!
Edit:
No, the system by design cannot be used as or converted into a weapon.
The aperture size of transmitter and receiving antenna are sized to keep the maximum beam intensity at or below 245 W/m2. This is only one quarter of the intensity of sunlight at midday, which is around 1,000 W/m2.
Lacking a common power bus, it would not be possible to re-purpose the power distributed across the platform to power a separate laser or particle weapon.
The aperture size of transmitter and receiving antenna are sized to keep the maximum beam intensity at or below 245 W/m2. This is only one quarter of the intensity of sunlight at midday, which is around 1,000 W/m2.
So it could be testing the feasability of the next sattelite that will be a weapon with a different aperture size.
I would be surprised if they manage to make it work at that scale.
That sounds absolutely insane, maybe its April 1st in iceland?
inb4 “ackshully…”
The company aims to have a scaled-up version of the system in space by 2036, which would supply gigawatts of electricity.
by 2036? We are all dead by then…
