PG&E Makes Deal For Solar Power From Space

N!NJA writes "California's biggest energy utility announced a deal Monday to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity from a startup company that plans to beam the power down to Earth from outer space, beginning in 2016. Solaren would generate the power using solar panels in Earth orbit and convert it to radio-frequency transmissions that would be beamed down to a receiving station in Fresno, PG&E said. From there, the energy would be converted into electricity and fed into PG&E's power grid."

Comments

Re:Not a problem, don't be such worrywarts

[Jacques Chester]

I sometimes wonder if SimCity has done more damage to the progress of orbital solar than all other causes combined.

Re:Bad idea

[Lloyd_Bryant]

The problem is that a laser beam doesn't go any faster than light speed, either.

The satellite would have to determine on its own whether it's still pointing the right way.

That's why I specified that the *receiver* have a very limited field of vision. If the satellite rotates enough to be off target, it can no longer see the laser. Thus no latency issues.