Spaced Based Solar Panels

A space based solar power system could provide energy to everyone even in places that don t receive sunlight all year round like northern europe and russia.

Spaced based solar panels.

China said in a. Mankins and others estimate the total cost for developing building launching and assembling all the components of a space based solar power plant is on the order of 4 to 5 billion a fraction. Since it s space week we thought it d be appropriate to look at one promising but futuristic idea that could change the face of solar power generation. Among their conclusions was that launch costs would need to come down to 100 200 per kg to make space based solar power economically competitive.

A space based solar power station would capture the sun s energy that never makes it to the planet and use laser beams to send the energy back to earth to meet energy demand needs. From the power system perspective the area of interest in which esa is looking for new ideas is the scaling and integration of space based solar power into energy grids. Solar panels on spacecraft supply power for two main uses. While the energy department is not actively researching sbsp we hope you ll take a moment to learn about this far out concept.

For both uses a key figure of merit of the solar panels is the specific power watts generated divided by solar array mass which indicates on a relative basis how much. They are made from solar or photovoltaic cells and are used rural areas residences commercial establishments and government infrastructure. Others are novel system concepts for space based solar power stations and subsystem concepts or technologies with the potential to substantially increase the technical or. The concept of space based solar power is not new.

Space based solar power sbsp. In fact this technology was mentioned way back in 1941 in the science fiction story reason written by isaac asimov. Power to run the sensors active heating cooling and telemetry. It is hard to imagine accomplishing a factor of 100 reduction in launch costs.

In 1999 nasa initiated a 22 million study investigating the feasibility of space based solar power. In april of 2015 a research. Solar panels are basically used to convert the solar energy coming from the sun into electricity. Power for spacecraft propulsion electric propulsion sometimes called solar electric propulsion.