NYT Op Ed Advocates Solar Power From Space
The NY Times (of all places) has an interesting look at an old idea — collecting solar energy from Earth orbit and beaming it to the surface:
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.
That’s from an Op Ed by Glenn Smith, a “former manager of science and applications experiments for the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.” The idea of solar power from space dates back at least to the late 1960’s.
