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Can't we skip the conversion and use giant optical lenses to focus sunlight onto panels on earth? ;)
by eterm 13y ago
Can't we skip the conversion and use giant optical lenses to focus sunlight onto panels on earth? ;)
- Gravityloss 13y agoNo, that doesn't work since the sun is not a point source.
- jonathlee 13y agoMaybe it doesn't work for lenses but it seems it would work for mirrors: http://www.academia.edu/5185260/SUNBEAMS_FROM_SPACE_MIRRORS_IN_DAWN-DUSK_POLAR_ORBIT_FEEDING_SOLAR_FIELDS_ON_THE_GROUND_FOR_LOW_COST_ELECTRICITY http://www.academia.edu/5185260/SUNBEAMS_FROM_SPACE_MIRRORS_...
- Gravityloss 13y agoThanks for the good link! Ok, here they produce 1-sun intensity by having a 10 km mirror at 1000 km height, focusing on a 10 km terrestrial array. That's a similar angular diameter, 1/100, as the sun, so from the receiver's point of view it can appear as powerful as the sun. I'm surprised that the numbers work out like that. Maybe you could create a huge "death ray" constellation with 10x solar intensity and whose ground track (all sats in the same ground track) was filled with liquid cooled solar panels. Over the ocean it would just kill everything in its path.