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Solaris: ESA Says Space-Based Solar Power Is a Real Option
- ncmncm 4y agoThis is pretty wacky. But a vast fleet of super-lightweight orbiting mirrors joined up to direct sunshine onto solar farms on the ground might be made to work. (Of course their weight in orbit is zero. What matters was their weight on the launch pad.) The mirrors are optically flat, but mass only milligrams. Very gently unfolded and joined together by thousands of mechanical spiders, they focus sunlight onto another, much smaller mirror many thousands of miles away that rotates to redirect the light to a ground-based array as it turns past. This mirror has many faces (6?) so that as it rotates and the ground target finally turns out of view, the next face picks out another farm to take its light.
- cyanydeez 4y agoI'm sure you can sell the cooked birds also
- ncmncm 4y agoBirds are pretty well used to flying in sunshine without being cooked. They can even fly over solar farms in the daytime. I have seen it done. They mostly don't fly at night, anyway, when this system would be in use.
- cyanydeez 4y agohttps://www.sciencealert.com/this-solar-plant-accidentally-incinerates-up-to-6-000-birds-a-year https://www.sciencealert.com/this-solar-plant-accidentally-i...
- ncmncm 4y agoThe overwhelming majority of solar farms are not solar thermal. And, the majority of solar thermal farms are also not of that type.