Japan firm marks one small step for solar energy in space

[Sherbang]

A major Japanese machinery company said Friday that it has succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly, marking a step toward making solar power generation in space a reality.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said it used microwave technology to send 10 kilowatts of power—enough to run a set of conventional kitchen appliances—through the air to a receiver 500 metres (1,640 feet) away.

Solar power generation in space has many advantages over its Earth-based cousin, notably the permanent availability of energy, regardless of weather or time of day.
While man-made satellites, such as the International Space Station, have long been able to use the solar energy that washes over them from the sun, getting that power down to Earth has been the thing of science fiction.
The Japanese research offers the possibility that humans will one day be able to farm an inexhaustible source of energy in space, but it is estimated to take years, possibly until 2040s, to commercialise the new technology.

http://phys.org/news/2015-03-japan-firm-small-solar-energy.html

By the time SA gets all it's wonderful nuclear reactors, other countries will be harvesting clean energy from space...

 

[grok]

We simply gotta get that space elevator up & running

 

[konfab]

notably the permanent availability of energy, regardless of weather or time of day.

Erm.., a station like this would need to stay in geosynchronous orbit in order to remain connected to the grid. If that is the case, it would lose power as it goes behind the earth.:erm:

 

[Knyro]

What proportion of the total energy sent actually made it to the other side? They conveniently left that out I see.

 

[Ancalagon]

Erm.., a station like this would need to stay in geosynchronous orbit in order to remain connected to the grid. If that is the case, it would lose power as it goes behind the earth.:erm:

You still don't have to worry about clouds though, and you could probably get more light by rotating the array to always face the sun.

I always think of Sim City 2000 though - they had a power plant exactly like this, but it came with the added danger that now and then, the beam from the satellite would miss the dish and incinerate a nearby building.

 

[Arthur]

much easier to make our own sun.

roll on fusion power.

 

[konfab]

much easier to make our own sun.

roll on fusion power.

Only 10 years away , although I actually believe them this time.

 

[Sherbang]

Erm.., a station like this would need to stay in geosynchronous orbit in order to remain connected to the grid. If that is the case, it would lose power as it goes behind the earth.:erm:

So you have more than one

 

[konfab]

So you have more than one

That still doesn't help. Unless you have trans timezone powerlines, or relay stations in orbit.

 

[c3n0byt3]

What proportion of the total energy sent actually made it to the other side? They conveniently left that out I see.

Yeh this. Efficiency is key, but considering they intend using energy from the Sun, it's not so bad. You're not putting anything in.
But I guess as it is the we lose a lot of energy from the Sun through our atmosphere (a good thing actually).

 

[Knyro]

Yeh this. Efficiency is key, but considering they intend using energy from the Sun, it's not so bad. You're not putting anything in.
But I guess as it is the we lose a lot of energy from the Sun through our atmosphere (a good thing actually).

You're not putting anything in but what you lose in efficiency you pay for in size. These orbiting panels would have to be huge in order to bring down a non-trivial amount of energy. It's not going to be cheap to launch that much material into orbit. You may be getting "free" energy but the cost of setting up and maintaining such a system may render it uneconomical for quite some time.