Palau May Get Satellite Power In the Next Decade

davidwr writes "The island nation of Palau is looking into creating a satellite-to-ground power transmission system. The system would use low-orbit satellites to transmit power to a receiver in bursts, unlike some other plans which rely on geostationary satellites. The initial 1-megawatt project is supposed to go online 'as early as' 2012 for a cost of $0.8 billion. Time will tell if this can be made cost-effective compared to traditional solar or other sources of power."

Comments

Re:Asimov

[Xaositecte]

The idea behind global warming is the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which traps existing energy rather than allowing it to escape out into space. If the decrease in emissions allows more energy to escape than is being introduced into the system, you have a net benefit as far as global warming is concerned.

Secondly, if you produce energy through Solar power like this that you otherwise would have produced using oil, you aren't producing a net increase in energy. The oil is still stored there, not introduced into the global system. Indeed, energy from ANY source, including nuclear, increases the amount of energy introduced into the global system.

The only differences between using solar power as opposed to oil or nuclear are one of these is likely to be more efficient (damned if I know which one) - and Solar power is renewable until the sun runs out, at which point we've got bigger problems to worry about.

let's do the math

[Ancient_Hacker]

Kinda silly, but let's do the math. We will assume you can build and loft the required equipment for the stated price. A satellite at 300 miles up is going to be overhead for maybe 10 minutes. Let's assume as in TFA it will send down a megawatt during that time. So on the average it's beaming down 166 kilowatts. A kilowatt-hour might cost as much as 20 cents on an island, so this satellite gives them about $34 per hour.

Now if they went to the UN Bank to borrow the $800 million, they might get an interest rate of 8%. The first year, the interest cost alone is $64 million. The satellite has beamed back 24 * 366 * $34 or a tad under $300,000. This plan can't pay back even 1/200th of the cost of money.

Re:Just a demo

[gerrytucker]

I normally don't take the time to reply to Slashdot posts, but for some reason this response really jumped out at me. After really reading the article, not just one paragraph out of context, the reader clearly understands that a U.S. business man proposed this demo at an international conference and has German and Swiss partners in the project. Furthermore, they are going to be using one of the uninhabited islands as a safety precaution. The only mention of the U.S. military is that they did a 75 page study on the idea of transmitting power for military operations. After that, it only talks about the businessmen. Hardly the picture of the "war machine" pushing around a tiny nation which for some reason was scored as Informative.

Re:Just a demo

[ScrewMaster]

Well, if by "rich weirdo" you mean a certain transplanted Texas cowboy, you could be right. Fortunately he'll be gone soon. I hope.

Somewhat more seriously, the output of a power system like this would have to be fairly diffuse, to maintain a low enough energy density not to be dangerous to living tissue. Granted, what might not be dangerous to humans or larger animals might have deleterious effects on smaller organisms. From that perspective, a mid-ocean setting makes a good choice for a trial. Not that I read TFA or anything.

Also, there would have to be some incidental heating of the atmosphere as the beam passes through it, although the transmission frequency would be chosen with that in mind. It would be interesting to know what the possible effects on the weather would be if this technology becomes more widespread.

I've been fascinated by the idea of solar power satellites for decades, after reading about it in a sci-fi novel when I was a kid. It does make a lot of sense in many ways because in space, solar power is something. This may very well be the future of electric power generation, and might be what gives us ready access to near-space. Using beamed microwave or laser delivery of energy to vaporize reaction mass in a rocket has been theorized for some time (I think MIT did some small prototypes of a laser system.) In such a vehicle, your "fuel" can just be water, with the power provided by satellites or a ground-based array.

Re:Just a demo

[GreatBunzinni]

If you really had read the article then you would understand that the relation between this project and the US military is not a "paragraph out of context". The article states not only that the US defence department studied this option in the past but scrapped it for being too expensive, which nowadays, with all the developments on solar technology and materials, it is clearly not. Moreover, it also states, and you've seen to missed it, that this particular project has the US military as "an influential backer".

Then you go on about "a war mashine pushing around a tiny nation". I have to compliment you on your imagination, as neither the article nor my post mentions anything remotely related to oppressing anyone. Palau was chosen to be the place where they test this technology. That is all. How exactly do you justify the jump from "testing technology" to "a war machine pushing around a tiny nation"? You don't and you can't.

And then you mention the business aspect of it, as if it was some sort of proof that this project is not related to any military application, right after conveniently ignoring the fact that the US military is described as "influential backer". What you failed to understand is that the US of A, practically since it became an independent nation, depends on private business to supply it's military. whether through direct funding, starting companies or through procurement.

So maybe you could pay some attention to the articles you claim you've read.