Japan's Wireless, Power-Generating, Solar Satellite
Inhabitat
Japan has serious plans to send a solar-panel-equipped satellite into space that could wirelessly beam a gigawatt-strong stream of power down to earth and power nearly 300,000 homes.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and IHI Corporation are undertaking an ambitious project of $ 21bn. They are aspiring to design and develop a Space-based solar farm that would generate 1GW of power. This will require an area of four square kilometer consisting of rows of solar panels. This space solar farm will be housed 36,000km above the surface of the earth.
Mitsubishi, IHI to Join $21 Bln Space Solar Project (Update1)
A research group representing 16 companies, including
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., will spend four years developing technology to send electricity without cables in the form of microwaves, according to a statement on the trade ministry’s Web site today.
Mitsubishi Electric's space technology includes the manufacture and implementation of satellites, satellite components, and ground systems. Over the past four decades, we have completed more than 330 satellite projects for communications concerns, government agencies, and other large-scale clients that make us the leading company of space systems in Japan.
While the project might sound like science-fiction now, it likely that the landscape will be more favorable in 30 years (strict carbon emissions caps will make clean energy more cost-competitive, for example).
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