71–80 of 299 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technology is progressing so fast that something like space based solar or fusion power will replace terrestrial solar within 100 years.
Why? When will it be cheaper to deploy in space than in some remote area somewhere?
Please enough of them far away from Earth and you get pretty much unlimited energy all year round.
Australia is going to have make it Rd2 of being an energy commodity superpower. 40 years of exporting coal to China, it can look forward to 1000's years of export solar to APAC.
What advantage does Australia have over other Asia pacific countries to justify the infrastructure costs? Only Singapore where space is at a premium. Other countries can generally find space (even if over the water) and their worker costs for maintenance will be far lower.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? When will it be cheaper to deploy in space than in some remote area somewhere?
I'm pretty sure someone will figure out how to make a working solar sail that captures energy and beams it to earth via microwaves. Please enough of them far away from Earth and you get pretty much unlimited energy all year round.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What advantage does Australia have over other Asia pacific countries to justify the infrastructure costs? Only Singapore where space is at a premium. Other countries can generally find space (even if over the water) and their worker costs for maintenance will be far lower.
Huge amounts of land with stable sunny weather.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aussie politicians are too busy propping up coal and proposing unrealistic nuclear solutions to seriously focus on renewables.
Nuclear power plants, which have been successfully used for decades, are “unrealistic” now?
"Nuclear followed the learning curve up until about 1970, when it inverted and costs started rising"
So presumably this whole bit of climate theater has a lovely feel good story.
Australia is going to have make it Rd2 of being an energy commodity superpower. 40 years of exporting coal to China, it can look forward to 1000's years of export solar to APAC.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technology is progressing so fast that something like space based solar or fusion power will replace terrestrial solar within 100 years.
Why? When will it be cheaper to deploy in space than in some remote area somewhere?
When land becomes the limiting factor on earth.
From the article, it looks like they are installing 20 GWp of solar cells. ("peak power" that is only achieved when the sun is right above the solar cells with no atmosphere in between). The plan seems to be to store 36-42 GWh, and to deliver 2 GW max. That makes for a 20h energy storage at full power, and a big enough power reserve to recharge that storage during the day while delivering at full power. Likely a rese…
> So, it's a 2 GW power link, not a 20 GW power link Yup, my bad. Title is wrong but I can't change it now. I was looking for quick figures and saw the solar capacity numbers and put them. It seems only about 1.75 GW are actually planned to go through that link.