Earlier this week the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced their plans to kill two pretty big birds with one stone. The plan aimed at easing the country’s energy problems and solving global warming involves creating a miles-wide array of solar panels in orbit, and “beaming it” back down to earth with lasers or microwaves to a giant antennae back on earth.
While it is said that solar energy in space is about five times stronger than that on earth, I would imagine that the cost of a system like this would be at least five times more expensive. At first glance this seemed very intense, and frankly pretty unfeasible but then again, what do I know.
The “Space Solar Power System Project” is led by some of Japans biggest technology corporations including Mitsubishi, NEC, Fujitsu, and Sharp. This project is like I expected a long way off, with the final version planned to hit space in 2030, and a test version in 2020. Hopefully I will use energy from this plant to power my flying car twenty years down the road………
Tags: japan, Solar, space
I want to say that this sounds ridiculous, but I don’t want to come across as dumb. But then again, I will be old and gray by the time they can prove me wrong, so here it goes: This is ridiculous.
I saw this on TV. Seems like a lot of smart people are involved so who knows. Maybe they could get to work on PV efficiency in the mean time and we won’t have to go to space to solve our problems.
Hopefully they don’t put that “giant antennae back on earth” near my house. Some slight wind, and lookout.