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Japanese satellite will beam solar power to Earth in 2025
- slater 3y agoLooks like someone never played SimCity 2000!
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 3y agoFor today's 10,000 https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/Microwave_Power_Plant https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/Microwave_Power_Plant
- JayPalm 3y agoAnd of course, the relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- aitchnyu 3y agoYikes, what happens when the beam hits something else on the ground or in the air?
- greatgib 3y agoSure, that is probably one of the most brillant idea to fight earth warming...
- jacob019 3y agoMy first thought as well. I think it's the phrasing of the title. Although if we could beam in energy at high efficiency instead of pulling it from the ground at low efficiency it would probably be a net improvement. Now let's talk about beaming waste heat into space.
- wiml 3y agoI assume you're being sarcastic, in which case maybe you don't understand how global warming works. The overall solar energy flux to the Earth is huge — around 170 exawatts — almost all of which gets re-radiated into space. CO2 and other greenhouse gases affect how well the earth can radiate waste heat. If we were to replace all human energy generation with off-planet beamed energy, this would increase the influx by something like 0.01%; that won't change the equilibrium point much (remember the S·B law is fourth power). In contrast, the CO2 generated by fossil fuel use changes the earth's emissivity, which does have noticeable effect on the equilibrium point.
- cratermoon 3y agoI look forward to hearing their numbers for energy return on energy invested https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/
- thegrim33 3y agoTheir analysis puts earth-based solar in the most ideal locations on earth, namely North Africa and the Mojave desert, but then they assume a literal 0% cost in transmitting that power to where it needs to be used. Their analysis also completely ignores any cost and complexity involved with batteries / energy storage for earth-based solar. Yeah, I think any conclusion they've come to is pretty baseless considering the sloppiness of their calculations.
- cratermoon 3y ago"giant desert installations of PV on the ground will incur a similar cost (though higher because the demand is farther from the source)." I suppose it's too much to ask folks who frequent HN to read the whole article.
- hulitu 3y agoThey don't invest any energy. It comes from the sun. /s
- jrflowers 3y agoFinally, solar energy that originates in space
- aitchnyu 3y agoAnybody knows the math on money and fossil fuels to set up the system and how many watt-hours it will generate over its lifetime? Still feel solar+batteries will give better ROI for a long time.
- ZeroGravitas 3y agoThe NASA report mentioned near the end is here: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/otps-sbsp-report-final-tagged-approved-1-8-24-tagged-v2.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/otps-sbsp-re...
- ZeroGravitas 3y agoThis mostly seems to be an excuse to get funding for people who want to launch stuff into space anyway, (with a side helping of undermining traditional renewables) so good on NASA (and space.com) for questioning the utility of the concept.