3 ms·
ELI5: Why not lenses and mirrors to focus light to earth? Is it energy inefficient to boil water with focuses light (or laser) from space?
by _8j50 4y ago
ELI5: Why not lenses and mirrors to focus light to earth? Is it energy inefficient to boil water with focuses light (or laser) from space?
- ncmncm 4y agoMany square km of super-lightweight aluminized mylar mirrors reflecting light to ground-based solar farms could work. In principle. Nothing else would. Keeping them pointed the right way would be hard. Maybe they would point at a much smaller secondary mirror responsible for sweeping the beam as Earth turns under it. This really is a bad idea all around. Europe would better build solar farms in the tropics driving ammonia synthesizers, and ship that north to use in existing NG burners.
- _8j50 4y agoI just needed to know why, thank you.