Heavens to Murgatroyd, there’s a NYTimes Op-ed on Space Solar Power from former NASA scientist O. Glenn Smith. Gives a good argument for looking into space power and a nice description of the process:
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.
In terms of cost effectiveness, the two stumbling blocks for space solar power have been the expense of launching the collectors and the efficiency of their solar cells. Fortunately, the recent development of thinner, lighter and much higher efficiency solar cells promises to make sending them into space less expensive and return of energy much greater.
The idea has been around for a good long while…since the late ’60s at least…and the subject of Allen Steele’s first novel, Orbital Decay (still my personal favorite of his books…forgivably clunky, but fun).
Like the space elevator, the idea has been kicked around the space community for some time and there has been a lot of serious thought on how to do it right. Unlike the space elevator, we can build a space solar power facility now, if we wanted to. There’s even a Space Solar Power Association, a trade group for a non-existent industry.
Unfortunately, space power as an issue has settled into a background hum of complacent semi-interest. Occasionally, someone will write a white paper or an interesting magazine article, which will spur some momentary interest.
Last year, the military has given new hope to space power enthusiasts when the Pentagon’s National Space Security Office made noises that it was considering research into space power as a means of powering remote military bases. This, it seems, spurred the the Space Frontier Foundation (Note to space websites: stop with the starfield backgrounds, already…we get that you like space, really) to a blog on the topic, which subsequently petered out in April after posting about an article in Ad Astra — the National Space Society’s magazine, not a Kansas appreciation site.
So, space junkies aside, why is this interesting? Well, the current energy…erm…crisis (panic is more like it) turns pipedreamers into visionaries.
Anyway, good stuff, as long as we can convince folks it isn’t a death ray. The idea of beaming energy to earth via microwaves will freak out a great many people, some intelligent ones too.