Japanese satellite will beam solar power to Earth in 2025

https://www.space.com/japan-space-based-solar-power-demonstration-2025

by Anon84 • 2 years ago

43 15 2 years ago

space.com

slater• 2 years ago

Looks like someone never played SimCity 2000!

01HNNWZ0MV43FF• 2 years ago

For today's 10,000 https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/Microwave_Power_Plant

JayPalm• 2 years ago

And of course, the relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1053/

aitchnyu2• 2 years ago

Yikes, what happens when the beam hits something else on the ground or in the air?

greatgib• 2 years ago

Sure, that is probably one of the most brillant idea to fight earth warming...

jacob019• 2 years ago

My first thought as well. I think it's the phrasing of the title. Although if we could beam in energy at high efficiency instead of pulling it from the ground at low efficiency it would probably be a net improvement. Now let's talk about beaming waste heat into space.

wiml• 2 years ago

I assume you're being sarcastic, in which case maybe you don't understand how global warming works. The overall solar energy flux to the Earth is huge — around 170 exawatts — almost all of which gets re-radiated into space. CO2 and other greenhouse gases affect how well the earth can radiate waste heat.

If we were to replace all human energy generation with off-planet beamed energy, this would increase the influx by something like 0.01%; that won't change the equilibrium point much (remember the S·B law is fourth power). In contrast, the CO2 generated by fossil fuel use changes the earth's emissivity, which does have noticeable effect on the equilibrium point.

cratermoon2• 2 years ago

I look forward to hearing their numbers for energy return on energy invested https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/

thegrim33• 2 years ago

Their analysis puts earth-based solar in the most ideal locations on earth, namely North Africa and the Mojave desert, but then they assume a literal 0% cost in transmitting that power to where it needs to be used.

Their analysis also completely ignores any cost and complexity involved with batteries / energy storage for earth-based solar.

Yeah, I think any conclusion they've come to is pretty baseless considering the sloppiness of their calculations.

cratermoon2• 2 years ago

"giant desert installations of PV on the ground will incur a similar cost (though higher because the demand is farther from the source)."

I suppose it's too much to ask folks who frequent HN to read the whole article.

hulitu• 2 years ago

They don't invest any energy. It comes from the sun. /s

jrflowers• 2 years ago

Finally, solar energy that originates in space

aitchnyu2• 2 years ago

Anybody knows the math on money and fossil fuels to set up the system and how many watt-hours it will generate over its lifetime? Still feel solar+batteries will give better ROI for a long time.

ZeroGravitas2• 2 years ago

The NASA report mentioned near the end is here:

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/otps-sbsp-re...

ZeroGravitas2• 2 years ago

This mostly seems to be an excuse to get funding for people who want to launch stuff into space anyway, (with a side helping of undermining traditional renewables) so good on NASA (and space.com) for questioning the utility of the concept.

Japanese satellite will beam solar power to Earth in 2025

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