Their idea is to project solar panels above the Earth's atmosphere and then beam the power to Earth using radio waves. The big factor limiting the use of solar panels on Earth is weather. This limits them to use in areas where intractable hours of sunlight can be guaranteed. Of course, in space, along with not being able to hear screaming, there's no clouds, no day and night. So power can be created 24 hours a day, except during the twice yearly equinoxes. These outages will be short and can be predicted, so they have been written into the plans.
It is being run in conjunction with SolarEn, a private engineering company with interests in clean energy. This comes days after Ken Salazar announced the wind power potential of the US coast. Are we to believe from these announcements that the US has turned a corner on it's energy policy under Obama? After all, he has demanded that 25% of the US' energy be gleaned from renewable sources by 2025.
Again, we can but wait and see.
Wow that is great idea, but yes wait and see. Anna :)
ReplyDelete