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https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/ >At this level, our 3.6 km diameter col
by sbierwagen 10y ago
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/
>At this level, our 3.6 km diameter collecting area would generate about 40 GWh of energy in a day, at an assumed reception/conversion efficiency of 70%. By comparison, a flat array of 15%-efficient PV panels occupying the same area in the Mojave Desert would generate about a fourth as much energy averaged over the year. So these beaming hotspots are not terribly more concentrated than what the sunlight provides already. Again, I find myself scratching my head as to why we should go to so much trouble.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoGrid delivery. You cannot easily move power from the desert into urban centers.
- sbierwagen 10y agoWell, you sure can't point the power delivery beam at downtown LA either. And the footprint of the rectenna array is enormous-- Tom assumes a 100GHz transmit antenna 30m wide, which means the downlink antenna has to be 3.6km wide! And this is the minor axis-- the solar array has to be geosynchronous orbit, which means any receiving antenna not on the equator has be an ellipse.