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Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth

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Re: Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth

#11

Post by iwwr »

kokotko wrote: post #7

"Let me tell you one of my pet peeves: space solar power. Okay, the stupidest thing ever. If anyone should like space solar power, it should be me. I got a rocket company and a solar company. I should be really on it, ya know. But it's like, super obviously, not going to work because, ya know, if you have solar panels - first of all, it has to be better than having solar panels on Earth, so then you say, okay, solar…

Space-based solar may work in powering space probes that are too far from the sun. An array of solar concentrators could beam down just enough solar power downrange to make the exploration of the Kuiper belt and inner Oort cloud worthwhile (there is no loss in conversion since you're redirecting photons all the way to the spacecraft). The alternative thing may be orbiting microwave relays that receive power from Earth and then beam it at the distant spacecraft (either as laser or microwave power).

Re: Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth

#12

Post by beambot »

polemic wrote: post #10
kokotko wrote: post #7

"Let me tell you one of my pet peeves: space solar power. Okay, the stupidest thing ever. If anyone should like space solar power, it should be me. I got a rocket company and a solar company. I should be really on it, ya know. But it's like, super obviously, not going to work because, ya know, if you have solar panels - first of all, it has to be better than having solar panels on Earth, so then you say, okay, solar…

Seems to me that a significant advantage of 'space solar' is that you can ditch a significant amount of ground based distribution infrastructure. Transformers are pretty efficient but lose about 2% per step up/down[1], power lines are another 1-4%/100 miles[2], then you have losses related to storage since you can't turn solar on/off at will like you can with hydro or fired plants. If a single solar sattelite [multip…

You'd still have to distribute the power from ground-based receiving stations via the grid. No free lunch.

Re: Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth

#15

Post by omh »

kokotko wrote: post #7

"Let me tell you one of my pet peeves: space solar power. Okay, the stupidest thing ever. If anyone should like space solar power, it should be me. I got a rocket company and a solar company. I should be really on it, ya know. But it's like, super obviously, not going to work because, ya know, if you have solar panels - first of all, it has to be better than having solar panels on Earth, so then you say, okay, solar…

This seems to assume that you have the ground area on Earth for the panels. That's true where Musk is working in the US, but not for many smaller countries.

Of course I guess it that for those countries it would still be easier to put the panels somewhere else and build out the connection infrastructure than to put it in space.

Re: Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth

#17

Post by hartror »

omh wrote: post #15
kokotko wrote: post #7

"Let me tell you one of my pet peeves: space solar power. Okay, the stupidest thing ever. If anyone should like space solar power, it should be me. I got a rocket company and a solar company. I should be really on it, ya know. But it's like, super obviously, not going to work because, ya know, if you have solar panels - first of all, it has to be better than having solar panels on Earth, so then you say, okay, solar…

This seems to assume that you have the ground area on Earth for the panels. That's true where Musk is working in the US, but not for many smaller countries. Of course I guess it that for those countries it would still be easier to put the panels somewhere else and build out the connection infrastructure than to put it in space.

There are plenty of countries that are net importers of energy now.

Re: Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth

#18

Post by ateev »

I guess we have enough space on the earth for putting solar panels. Why invest so much money on future technology when we haven't even implemented the previous one properly. What happens if before this technology is properly implemented, a new better technology comes? Then again this idea will become a banal and everyone will look forward to the next. We need to first set our focus on what we have in hand. Fully implement it, then move to something greater.

Re: Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth

#19

Post by chad_oliver »

beambot wrote: post #12
polemic wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to me that a significant advantage of 'space solar' is that you can ditch a significant amount of ground based distribution infrastructure. Transformers are pretty efficient but lose about 2% per step up/down[1], power lines are another 1-4%/100 miles[2], then you have losses related to storage since you can't turn solar on/off at will like you can with hydro or fired plants. If a single solar sattelite [multip…

You'd still have to distribute the power from ground-based receiving stations via the grid. No free lunch.

Yes, but I believe his point was that you could have multiple smaller stations close to where the power is needed. If it isn't safe to have the receivers near cities, then I don't think there's much chance that any receiver (anywhere) will get past the regulatory hurdles.
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