Power Plant in Space!

[noodle]

You can't be serious, MMM! All this is, is solar panels in Space but costing a lot more and risking a lot of peoples' health by sending even more rays down to earth. It'd be a much better use of resources if Japan bought enough land in the desert somewhere and set up enough solar panels to soak up a thousand times more energy than a solar panel in space would...

This isn't smart thinking at all... There isn't anything good about this idea apart from it makes people go "oooo, wow, Japan can be sooo innovative! They're so smart!!"

[Barone1551]

Personally I think this is great idea. If not for the immediate effects, but what this could mean for the future. This is how inventions and new ideas work. Someone has to test it out. This could mean great things for the future. Its forward thinking and innovative and I love that. The only thing I can semi agree with is the money issue.

To the above poster: The reason space is better is becuase they can get at least twice the power from space, than you can from solar panels being on the earths surface. So the same panels that are situated on the surface would generate at least twice the amount of energy if they were floating in orbit.

There are also some problems with putting solar panels in the desert. While it does produce lots of energy, they need lots of up keep to make the useful at all times. The desert is very sandy, as you know, this ruins the productivity of the solar panel. It makes them less effecient. Also the desert is a harsh place, and with things like wind and sand storms, it is very easy to damage these solar panels.

Now there are other solutions to the energy crisis. Things like putting solar panels on abandoned buildings, or outfitting homes with solar energy. Put all these things cost money. And all of these things need one very important thing.... room to put them. This is why I think it is great they are trying to put it in space. You could save so much room by putting the power plant in space. To get the same efficiency on ground level you would need at least 8 square kilometers of room to put solar panels.

[noodle]

Barone1551, you make some good points, but I don't think you think things through properly... You've looked at the positives, but haven't considered the negatives much.

Yes, there are maintenance costs if you set up solar panels in the desert, and yes they would collect less energy than if they were in space (and btw, it's roughly 1.3 times more at any given time, not twice) and yes you can talk about the limited time of solar exposure etc etc. BUT and this is a big BUT, maintenance costs are far far less than those in space... You gave dust and wind as an example of damage to panels in the desert. In space, you have solar flares. It's very very hard to keep sudden surges of energy under control without at least one piece of a machine going bust (usually a fuse).

Getting past this problem is very tricky, and if unable to get past this, to maintain and replaces a fuse (being simplistic I know... and if you know your stuff, you're prob wondering if i know anything about circuit breakers... even those are troublesome and would not be without maintenance costs), it will cost A LOT more than cleaning a solar panel... (which you don't actually have to do, because you can easily put the panels in some sort of greenhouse lol... The only maintenance costs there is cleaning the windows which doesn't cost too much as you can see by the buildings in Dubai, Doha and all rich middle eastern countries.

The only time I'd agree that this is a good idea is the day that we are able to have cities in space... At the moment, this is a huge waste of resources, hence why the US hasn't gone up there yet (check out SBSP and SERT). They've been talking about this since the 60's I think.

The simple fact is, Japan is trying to jump forward rather than go at it slowly. e.g. to beam down the energy, there is only a certain frequency you can use, and this frequency will more likely than not be slowed down by our ozone which in turn reduces the amount of energy and potentially damages the ozone due to concentrated amounts of energy on one spot (unlikely, but theoretically true as far as I know)

[Barone1551]

I know what you mean, and I have thought of negatives for this situation. If this thing breaks down in space it would be a huge problem and cost lots of money. I get that. I was saying that there isnt a solid solutions that makes perfect sense. They all have negatives and positives. Another negative of the space power plant is the fact that if this does break down, what kind of back up power do you use to power all the homes that were using Space solar panels. How long will it take for these homes to get power again. These, among others, are things I have thought about as potential problems for this space plant. I however feel that innovation and trying to take steps forward is the only way to push the boundaries. And push the boundaries enough to not only try and make a completely renewable source of energy, but also technology itself. We all know that the price of new tech. is insanely expensive, but as the technology gets better, the smaller we can make things, the more powerful we can make things. Someone needs to step up and start making more tech geared toward our environment. I also think this will show other countries the big steps Japan is willing to take to help our environment. I hope things like this will make other countries realize how important renewable energy is. Maybe countries wont take as big of steps as japan is but maybe the will start using more solar panels. Maybe other countries will come up with better solutions, better technology. I just like the fact that Japan is pushing the boundaries and a subject that needs to be pushed. We have know about the declining health of the environment for some time, and relatively nothing has been done.

[fluffy0000]

I have solar panels on my live-aboard and installed them my self with a 1500watt inverter and xantrex controller that powers my battery bank for my computer, sat.TV,radios and fridge -lighting all for under $ 1325.00 USD.
I must admit I must be missing something here after reading the
article and the 'microwaves transmission beam' -sort of had me chuckling.

[seiki]

so the only good i see is maybe it takes less space on japanese soil but how many power plants can you build on the earth with 21,000,000,000?

[Barone1551]

But the idea is not that its more productive than an energy plant. Its that it is completely renewable and environment friendly. So yes you could just build a power plant, but that is what they are trying to avoid.

[seiki]

Im guessing they want to shoot it into orbit and bounce the sunlight into solar receptors which would create alot of power but how would this affect people? To keep somthing in orbit and have it stay over japan (Im assuming that it is supposed to be over it in order for it to work) . It dose not seem safe and it just sounds ridiculous.

[Barone1551]

Yes they will shoot it into orbit and I believe they will have it use geostationary technology. The technology already exists for other things such as satellites. And it doesn't reflect the light into japan. It collects the power in space and sends it to Japan using waves.