Japan to spend US$21 billion on a power plant in space
September 2nd, 2009 by Kunal
Japan is all set to implement an idea that has been tossed around for almost the past four decades – space-based solar power. The proposed power plant in space is said to cost a whooping US$21 billion, and will develop power using solar energy to generate one gigawatt of energy (enough to power 294,000 homes). The energy developed will then be transmitted wirelessly to Earth.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and industrial design company IHI Corp. have teamed up to develop a technology that will transmit the power generated without the use of wires. Mitsubishi and IHI will be a part of a research group, along with 14 other global companies, to create the four square kilometer space power station in the next three decades. Japan also plans to test a small prototype of the ‘power plant’ by 2015.
The project though, will have to go through many hurdles. These include the high transportation costs of solar panels into space, the very-real collision damange to the power station from meteors and asteroids, and possible health issues that could be caused because of the cable-less power transmission. The list is endless. Still, Japan looks forward to develop the necessary wireless technology in just four years.
Japan is not the only country in the race for solar-based power generation. Solaren Corporation and utility company Pacific Gas and Electric, both based in California in the US, are working on a 200 Megawatt power station to be set up in space in a 15-year span, that starts in 2015.
via [Inhabitat]
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Categories: Announcements | Tags: IHI Corp, Japan power station, Mitsubishi Electric, PG&E, solar energy, solar power, solar-powered, Solaren, space-based, wireless energy
Sounds interesting, but the wireless transmission of power sounds far fetched and makes it sound like a hoax.
Getting the power down by microwaves has been understood for 40 years and was tested at Goldstone back in the 70s.
The hard part is getting the satellites to GEO. That has to come down by a factor of 100 or more. The Japanese understand this.
There are 3 possible ways to get the cost down. One of them you can read about if you google on oil drum henson