Solaren Corp to supply California with space-based solar power
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted April 15th 2009 11:17AM
posted April 15th 2009 11:17AM
After JAXA's announcement of space-based solar power for Japan, we've been keeping our eyes peeled for some news of similar projects Stateside. Lo and behold, California's largest energy utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, has agreed to do just that, inking a deal with solar power startup Solaren Corp. The agreement calls for the utility to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity once the company starts beaming power down from Earth orbit beginning in 2016. A solar-power satellite would consist of mirror arrays -- perhaps measuring up to several miles wide -- which would focus sunlight onto photoelectric cells. From there, the electrical power is converted into a microwave beam that is directed downward toward Earth, where it's converted back into electricity and then fed into the grid. According to the company, the system could generate roughly 1.2 to 4.8 gigawatts of power, at a price comparable to that of other renewable energy sources. When asked for a comment, legendary sci-fi jazz composer Sun Ra was more than enthusiastic. "Space is the place," he said.
[Via Fresno Bee]
[Via Fresno Bee]
I don't think this'll work very well either. Maybe if they can float a 177mi^2 antenna on the ocean. =/
(And fry up some sea life. mmmmm....)
Why are you using 37,000km for distance in your calculations? space starts bellow 100km above the earth, which is where the power station may be located...
@TaBu
It's called geosynchronous orbit.
@ henry
The microwave probably wouldn't spread out like normal light, it would probably be focused and have a much lower spread angle. Also, geosync orbit is less than 23K miles, it around 22K miles.
I don't know... having it as non-geosynchronous would make things more exciting. And who doesn't like things exciting?
Why use microwaves? Surely an extension cable would suffice.
oh great, time to beam cancer down from the satellitez
Read up on science please. Microwaves are non-ionizing radiation. No increased risk of cancer.
Bad idea, seriously.
That's pretty awesome, California again leading the way, by the end of the decade we'll have the first true high-speed rail in the country as well as this crazy thing, suck it the rest of America :D (jk, the rest of America is pretty sweet as well). The only thing that bothers me is what if an aircraft or anything else gets in the way of the beam, what would happen then? I'm sure they'll make it safe I mean... but still for that much energy to be wirelessly "beamed" for miles.. it sounds a little scary.
the only problem is that we (califonia) are broke
This BS. A back-of-teh envelope calculation shows that their array would need to be about 1 km on a side to supply just 200 MW of power.
Somehow, I don't think these guys will be able to assemble such a large object so soon. Nothing coming close has ever been done.
Although in space, collection is roughly 10 times better than on earth, so, assuming your envelope looks like my envelope...
1000m*1000m*(~1000W/m2)*10(space)*.2(ineff) = ~2GW.
But that is still a hell of a large array. And this thing would have to have one hell of a tracking system on it keep the beam on California and in the Sun. (If that is even possible for 24/7 operation)
yeah and then a piece of debris hits it, slightly jarring it, but the movement is magnified greatly over the 10s or hundreds of kilometers. and all of the sudden a 200 Megawatt microwave beam is frying an area the size of a church parking lot in Downtown Santa Barbara.
(too bad it wasn't sunday)
I wish I'd thought of this.
Dust off some 1970s-era "feasibility studies", add another zero or two to the cost estimates, and apply for federal "green energy" subsidies.
Then skim several million off the top for my offshore account.
What concerns me is the potential light pollution introduced by solar satellites. It'll be like a one or more full moons in the sky, all the time. This not only ruins the skies for astronomy and just plain enjoying the stars, it will probably mess with animals that depend on the moon for navigation, timing, etc. This is a _really_ bad idea...
And you thought global warming was a problem already!
'Nuff said!
Mark my words - relatively free and clean energy within 50 years... Think of what that will mean to:
- cartels in the middle east
- our ability to supply the third world with energy
- our ability to control greenhouse gas emissions
- our ability to stick bigger payloads into space
- our ability to travel cheap
- our ability to drive any size vehicle we want
it could be a new renaissance...
cartels in middle east? how about cartels in wall street? :) I think we all would like that giant microwave beam to be pointed somewhere at between Nassau and Pearl st New York 10005 :D That is not very green if you are pumping all that energy to earth and just heating it .
This is magnificent. It will change everything. Just think of the possibilities, lead lined underwear, mirrored roofs, sunblock with SPF 1200, popcorn crops, Antarctica as a tropical destination, lobsters that come out of the ocean already cooked. I only see good things from this. I can't wait.
So how much energy will this take to create, put into place, and maintain?
Sorry to burst your bubble. But if you're looking at a space-based satellite as a "green" power tech, it's not going to be happening any time soon. Without a space elevator (which hopefully runs on renewable energy), the pollutants thrown up from launching said satellite would pollute the atmosphere more than the satellite will save you in its operational lifetime, given the same total energy output.
But then, of course, having it knocked off course and toasting someone's house might just be too interesting to resist. I feel sorry for the birds that happen to want to land on that energy collector already. Hope it's a duck or a chicken. At least I wouldn't have any qualms eating it after it's cooked.
Personally, I'd rather build an orbital tether/elevator and link up to a series of solar farms.
Personally, I'd rather build an orbital tether/elevator and link up to a series of solar farms. Of course there are many problems with this idea that can only be solved with time. Ideally, I would like several elevators linked up to an array of solar farms possibly in a ring around the planet. The constant flow of energy should sustain the power needed to run it as well as provide a great deal of energy to Earth. Now the first problem comes from materials. There just aren't enough. So I would suggest forming mining operation on asteroids for a starter. Then possible creating a manufacturing plant on the Moon for the next phase. Then probably at least 100 years of manual labor to complete to structure. Then there is the problem of space debris and solar radiation. While it shouldn't be too hard to protect the instruments from space radiation, the space debris is the tricky part. If it were a perfect world, force field technology would exist and that would easily supplement my need. However that is not the case. I have heard about technology creating pockets in solar winds and that might be worth looking into, but I currently have no idea on how to over come the danger of space debris.
Microwave powerplants are a bit early here I think; I thought they were slated for 2020, with Fusion to come in 2050.
Can't we just wire ourselves to the sun? Build a ship that would carry a plug to the center of the sun and BINGO!! This would allow us to be plugged in all the time and there would be no problems at night when the sun is gone. Or are we afraid to get our Earth tangled in that wire?
10 points for the obscure reference to Sun Ra.
Microwave powerplants putting Fresno on the map.
They obviously never saw Die Another Day...
Did you say... 1.21 JIGAWATTS!!!!
Naysayers!
Yay! Fresno is on Engadget!
Instead of focusing the sun light at photoelectric cells. Why don't they make the "7 mile" wide array completely out of solar cells and convert that to microwave energy. I know it would be like 10 times more expensive but it could produce maybe 10 times as much electricity. Maybe in the future
ONE POINT TWENTY ONE GIGAWATTS!?!?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjCRUvX2D0E
and now we have the plot for season 8 of 24 ...
Wonder what the cancer rate on this thing will be.
In answer to "Why are you using 37,000km for distance in your calculations? space starts bellow 100km above the earth, which is where the power station may be located..."
You need this thing to sit in 1 place relative to a spot on the earth, in geostationary (actually not geosynchronous orbit as someone mentioned) orbit [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit ] which is much higher than "space" which is simply the end of the atmosphere. Remember the space station constantly (in low earth orbit) moves relative to a spot on earth. Even for simple radio reception receivers around the work track it since it is constantly in orbit. Communications satellites (lie DirectTV for instance) sit in one place, which is why you can bolt a non-moving dish to your house.
As someone pointed out it's closer to 22,000 miles than 23,000 (although I did use a "~" to give approximate), which does slightly lower the receiver size, but not to a non-absurd size.