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China Plans Space-Based Solar Power Stations

posted by martyb on Tuesday February 19 2019, @04:22AM   
from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong-with-a-gigawatt-laser-in-space? dept.

takyon writes:

China wants to put a solar farm in space by 2025

According to China's state-backed Science and Technology Daily, Chinese scientists plan to build and launch small power stations into the stratosphere between 2021 and 2025, upgrading to a megawatt-level station in 2030 and a gigawatt-level facility high above the earth before 2050. Without atmospheric interference or night-time loss of sunlight, these space-based solar farms could provide an inexhaustible source of clean energy. The China Academy of Space Technology Corporation claims such a set-up could "reliably supply energy 99 per cent of the time, at six-times the intensity" of solar installations on earth.

China's proposal suggests converting solar energy into electricity in space, before beaming back to Earth using a microwave or laser and feeding into the grid via a ground receiving system.

Also at the Sydney Morning Herald.

See also: China Wants to Build the First Power Station in Space

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Original Submission

• High Frontier High Frontier (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @09:23AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @09:23AM (#803409)

  It sounds like the ideas for the orbital power satellites described by O'Neill in his High Frontier plan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Frontier:_Human_Colonies_in_Space). It's only 40ish years late!

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• Re:High Frontier (Score: 2) by fritsd on Tuesday February 19 2019, @05:46PM

  by fritsd (4586) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @05:46PM (#803559) Journal

  Sounds like the terrorist training centre "under the wire" in "The Cool War" by Frederik Pohl.

  Parent