4 ms·
> That beam is WAY more powerful than the sun per unit area. If not, we'd just use the sun. Not necessarily. Rectennas can get ~80% conversion efficiency, PV p
by skorgu 12y ago
> That beam is WAY more powerful than the sun per unit area. If not, we'd just use the sun.
Not necessarily. Rectennas can get ~80% conversion efficiency, PV panels you can actually get in bulk are closer to 30. So you can have a beam about as strong as the sun and get ~triple the power out the other end by using microwaves instead of light.
- danielweber 12y agoWhen you express what SPS is doing as "making solar 3 times more land-efficient" it looks kind of crazy. Maybe dump the billions of dollars that would be needed for launching just one of these into squeezing another percentage point out of all new solar cells.