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How Japan Plans To Build Orbital Solar Power Stations
the_newsbeagle (2532562) writes "Solar power stations in orbit aren't exactly a new idea — Asimov set one of his stories on such a space station back in 1941. Everyone thinks it's a cool idea to collect solar power 24 hours a day and beam it down to Earth. But what with the expense and difficulty of rocketing up the parts and constructing and operating the stations in orbit, nobody's built one yet. While you probably still shouldn't hold your breath, it's interesting to learn that Japan's space agency has spec'd out such a solar power station."
> why not just collect it from the ground in the first place?
Exactly.
> What's going to make collecting energy on the ground from a satellite more efficient than collecting it from the sun?
In theory you don't have night, so you get twice as much hours of sunlight. Add "cosine error" and the lack of weather, and you're up to five times.
But then you have to throw away half on the way down to the earth. And then the panels last half as long in space. So in the end it's a *very* small *theoretical* advantage.
Which is, of course, utterly wiped out by the cost of launch. And everyone knows this. But the guys proposing these things are not power companies, but space companies. As is the case here, it's JAXA, the Japanese space agency. Everyone outside the space field is completely aware of the fact that this is an utterly ridiculous idea.