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You're not a rocket scientist but you're absolutely right. It's cheaper to tear down the microwave receiver and put up solar panels and batteries than it is to

You're not a rocket scientist but you're absolutely right. It's cheaper to tear down the microwave receiver and put up solar panels and batteries than it is to send solar panels to space to beam power back to the microwave receiver. You'd have to beam 1000x the power that solar panels receive to justify the cost of sending things to space, but at that point you're lifting 100x more panels to space to get the 10x bonus, and lifing / installing them in space at 10,000x the cost or worse... Plus they have to be magical perfect installations that never fail and work perfectly. Again cheaper to put that money into more batteries and panels..

JoeAltmaier 3y ago
That's probably an exaggeration by this time. Lift costs are decreasing geometrically. Solar efficiency is going up constantly. Land and eminent domain groundside continue to go up. All the variables are moving in the direction to benefit orbital solar, and will continue to go that way. It's not so much a matter of whether it's cheaper in space, than when it is cheaper in space. And it won't be long now.
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  Every reduction in solar cost makes it more efficient to buy panels on earth. The installation cost for space is so much more than the installation cost for earth. Even at 10x the cost, which is orders of magnitude off, what do we have? We have a system in space at 10 the cost that needs a solar array sized receiving plant (double the cost) and has transmission losses (increase size of space and ground installations to offset). It would have to be nearly the same cost or cheaper to install in space than on a field in, say, Kansas. Its a ludicrous proposition. Anyway, this guy said it better: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/08/20/space-based-solar-power-is-not-a-thing/ https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/08/20/space-based-so...
  - JoeAltmaier 3y ago
    Those are the numbers that are changing. Transmission losses have become fairly tiny. The 'ludicrous proposition' is similar to the turn-of-the-century folk who yelled 'get a horse!'
    - jvanderbot 3y ago
      Well, I'm open to new numbers. I'll have to re-read TFA and dive deeper at some point. But last time I checked, and last time I asked smarter people than me what they thought, it was quite a ways off.
    - cykros 3y ago
      [flagged]

JoeAltmaier 3y ago

That's probably an exaggeration by this time. Lift costs are decreasing geometrically. Solar efficiency is going up constantly. Land and eminent domain groundside continue to go up. All the variables are moving in the direction to benefit orbital solar, and will continue to go that way. It's not so much a matter of whether it's cheaper in space, than when it is cheaper in space. And it won't be long now.

jvanderbot 3y ago
Every reduction in solar cost makes it more efficient to buy panels on earth. The installation cost for space is so much more than the installation cost for earth. Even at 10x the cost, which is orders of magnitude off, what do we have? We have a system in space at 10 the cost that needs a solar array sized receiving plant (double the cost) and has transmission losses (increase size of space and ground installations to offset). It would have to be nearly the same cost or cheaper to install in space than on a field in, say, Kansas. Its a ludicrous proposition. Anyway, this guy said it better: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/08/20/space-based-solar-power-is-not-a-thing/ https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/08/20/space-based-so...
- JoeAltmaier 3y ago
  Those are the numbers that are changing. Transmission losses have become fairly tiny. The 'ludicrous proposition' is similar to the turn-of-the-century folk who yelled 'get a horse!'
  - jvanderbot 3y ago
    Well, I'm open to new numbers. I'll have to re-read TFA and dive deeper at some point. But last time I checked, and last time I asked smarter people than me what they thought, it was quite a ways off.
  - cykros 3y ago
    [flagged]