Solar panels in space could cut Europe's renewable energy needs by 80%
Space-based solar power could help Europe reach net-zero by 2050 by reducing the need for land-based renewable energy.
cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36081990
Checked, the ACTUAL paper does mention how to transmit it, as microwaves, haven't read yet beyond the abstract (got some stuff pending to do) but at least it mentions a method
There's absolutely no mention in the article about how the generated power would be transmitted back to earth.
Wasn't there at least a Japanese experiment, in which they transmitted power by laser to the earth?
Don't remember how successful this was though
Close, it was microwaves!
https://www.space.com/japan-space-based-solar-power-demonstration-2025
Ah yes. “This energy would then be transmitted to one or more stations on Earth”. Simple eh?
Just beam it down to one of those receiver
I like that they gloss over the whole "transmitted to earth" portion of the system.
Well, the headline at least says it 'could'.
Yeah that's fair
They use microwaves for it:
Microwave scattering is an absolute nightmare over that kind of distance. Even for much shorter distances, microwaves are only practical to transport over a couple of meters in a waveguide.
If its transmitting to a base station, we can assume it's in geosynchronous orbit, or about 22,000 miles from the surface. With a fairly large dish on the satellite, you could probably keep the beam fairly tight until it hit the atmosphere, but that last ~100 miles of air would scatter it like no tomorrow. Clouds and humidity are also a huge problem -- water is an exceptionally good absorber in most of the MW band.
I saw numbers reported for the transmission efficiency somewhere (will update this if I can find it again), and they were sub-30%. The other 70% is either boiling clouds on its way down, or missing the reviever on the ground and gently cooking the surrounding area.
<wildly unrealistic idea>
could<wildly unrealistic improvement>
Yet another useless article that hinges entirely on the word 'could'. I can make stuff up too:
"1 windmill placed in every front yard could slash power prices by 99.9%"
"Solar panels mounted on every cat and dog could solve all our power needs"
"Painting all buildings in the world with reflective paint could save the polar ice caps by 2027"
This energy would then be transmitted to one or more stations on Earth.
They spent exactly one sentence addressing the biggest hurdle to doing this.They also don't link to the paper. Then they have this quote
Although the feasibility of this technology is still under review,
Which kinda makes me think this paper is bullshit.
