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The big problem is the peaky-ness of the current renewables. They're either very weather dependent, ecologically intensive or time dependent. This solves a lo
by qmarchi 3y ago
The big problem is the peaky-ness of the current renewables.
They're either very weather dependent, ecologically intensive or time dependent.
This solves a lot of this by moving the actual capture above us, into geostationary orbit where there's still plenty of space and by using microwaves (rather than traditional light) you can avoid clouds.
- jvanderbot 3y agoI would say it replaces one problem with 1000 harder ones. Space based solar power just doesn't make a ton of sense, either from a capacity or cost per watt-hour sense.
- jfengel 3y agoThey already possess fossil fuel plants that can be turned on for those rare occasions where nothing else is working. If they run only 1% of the time it is the least important problem. Even if they run 10% of the time it's still a massive decrease in CO2, without requiring putting things in orbit.