Solar Power Station In Space..

Japan Plans To Launch Solar Power Station In Space By 2040
link

I was just browsing some old pages and came across this one from 2001.

It made me think about how far would people go to provide clean power for our future

One economic hurdle so far is that it would cost about 23 yen per kilowatt hour to generate power in space compared to nine yen for thermal or nuclear power generation.

"But we will consider ways to lower the costs," Takenouchi said.

See the key word there.. CONSIDER..
This is so highly commendable..The fact that they will go ahead anyway regardless of the 'fiscal cost'
They will try to lower the cost but they're going to do it anyway.
so here's the question.

How much would YOU be prepared to pay for a clean limitless supply of power?
Is money really important enough to suffer the consequences of a depleted earth?
Think about it..put your hands in your pocket and take a good look at what money actually is..bits of metal and paper..

Just my weird thought for tonight..

I like tidal turbines. The tides are there. You don't have to shoot expensive rockets into space. Probably be a lot cheaper in both the short and long run.

The market will always decide which crazy energy generating scheme will be accepted. What are people looking for? Cheap and easy, and with enough profit made on it to invest.

reply to post by Nohup



Yeah, I agree. Cheap is great if it can be done.
(There's a few wind turbines offshore where I go fishing)
But why turn down a great project like you suggest ..due to cost.

One thing is certain.
WE WILL NEED POWER FROM SOMEWHERE.

It will have to be found or else all our technology is useless.
Here we have 24 hour a day guaranteed power.

Just think too..
Some of that power could be used to power adjoining space stations with immensely powerful computers in them.
With temps down to 3 kelvin in the shade you wouldn't have to have one HELL of a heatsink and a noisy fan.



[edit on 20-11-2007 by AGENT_T]

I actually heard an idea a few years ago about solar mirrors to reflect the sunlight straight to earth for use in solar generation.

I suppose the global warming crisis (?) did that idea in.

reply to post by AGENT_T


With the recent developments in solar cell production becoming cheaper than burning coal, this should help to reduce the cost for Japan to develop there Solar Power Station and by 2040, and who knows how much cheaper it will get by then.

reply to post by jra


One hurdle to this, as I understand it is the safety issue. Just as nuclear power can be misused, this has the same potential. Using microwaves to beam the power back to earth, one could imagine the ability to also "burn" an adversary simply by aiming it at a target instead of the intended receptor.

Plus, the real cost will be putting the solar cells in orbit, and then putting them up again once the old ones get used up (loss of attitude control fuel, radiation damage, etc), and so forth. I don't really see this happening without some major breakthrough in launch vehicles.

edit: not that this doesn't have any potential or shouldn't be looked into.

[edit on 27-11-2007 by cdrn]