[HN Gopher] UK government considers space-based solar power for ...
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UK government considers space-based solar power for 24/7 Solar
Generation
Author : timthorn
Score : 19 points
Date : 2021-04-02 19:20 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (energygain.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (energygain.co.uk)
| rl3 wrote:
| It's funny to see SimCity 2000 coming true. Hopefully not the
| disaster part, though.
|
| https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/Microwave_Power_Plant
|
| https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/Microwave_(disaster)
|
| https://www.deviantart.com/canona2200/art/SIMCITY-2000-Micro...
| bserge wrote:
| Giant solar arrays coupled with space elevators (anyone watch
| Gundam 00?), please make it true, I'll pay my 3.50 for it.
|
| Funny how I find this on the front page when I made a similar
| comment a few minutes ago.
| timthorn wrote:
| I heard a talk from the Space Applications Catapult about this a
| few months back. It isn't online any more, but some I noted some
| stats at the time. The station would be 1km wide and 4-5000
| tonnes in geostationary orbit, producing >2GW. It would beam
| power down via microwave to a receiving station 3-5km in
| diameter, so power density would be sufficiently low to not be a
| danger - "aircraft flying through it would not burst into flames"
|
| Projected cost was about equal to HS2 (about $100bn) for the
| pilot station but with much reduced costs for subsequent
| deployments.
| antisthenes wrote:
| > Projected cost was about equal to HS2 (about $100bn) for the
| pilot station but with much reduced costs for subsequent
| deployments.
|
| How does this compare to regular land-based Solar and/or
| offshore wind farms?
| marshray wrote:
| This is a joke right?
|
| Why in the world would anyone consider putting solar panels in
| space when there are still terrestrial rooftops without them?
|
| > "The UK is growing its status as a global player in space...
|
| Post-Brexit UK can't even launch a satellite.
| pjc50 wrote:
| _Pre-Brexit_ UK couldn 't even launch a satellite on its own;
| Blue Streak was cancelled and the only successful launch was
| after the cancellation.
|
| UK satellite building on the other hand is a very productive
| industry.
| nickparker wrote:
| https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/09/20/no-really-spac...
| Sanzig wrote:
| Indeed, space based solar power is always one of those ideas
| that sounds great until you sit down for fifteen minutes with a
| pencil and a piece of paper.
|
| The antenna aperture size for effective wireless power
| transmission in any band with a reasonable atmospheric window
| needs to be utterly massive. And you can't escape the aperture
| requirement with a phased-array, either, since you lose a bunch
| of power to grating lobes (see the "thinned-array curse").
| LatteLazy wrote:
| Be careful taking anything UK Gov says seriously. They'll launch
| the satellites for this by climbing magic-bean stalks I
| imagine...
| tectonic wrote:
| The US is looking into this too:
| https://www.geekwire.com/2020/space-force-will-test-solar-po...
|
| But I'm always pretty skeptical of space-based solar power
| proposals. First, the receiving array has to be really large or
| the energy density of the beam will be dangerous to birds /
| planes, etc. Second, utility is limited because we already have a
| huge fusion reactor in the sky beaming energy to us which we
| simply need to build receivers for.
| dave4420 wrote:
| To be fair, this avoids the problem of night (at the cost of
| the equinox becoming a problem) (and to some extent the weather
| as well? I forget).
|
| I wouldn't bank on it, but I'm glad it's being explored.
| jacques_chester wrote:
| > _Second, utility is limited because we already have a huge
| fusion reactor in the sky beaming energy to us which we simply
| need to build receivers for._
|
| Said fusion reactor's transmissions are blocked by the earth's
| bulk for half the day on average, including peak demand hours.
| The rest of the time it can be partially absorbed by cloud
| cover, greatly increasing the necessity of spare capacity over
| extremely wide areas.
|
| Space-based solar doesn't have these issues. It has unfiltered
| sunlight 24 hours per day.
| bserge wrote:
| Wouldn't need an energy beam if it could be routed through
| cables on a space elevator, which is another thing proposed by
| many people to make space exploration easier.
| dave4420 wrote:
| Last time I checked, any sort of cable or elevator to space
| was impractical, given the strength and density requirements.
| Has that changed?
|
| Also, a cable would have to attach to the Earth at the
| equator, which is some distance from the UK.
| Sanzig wrote:
| It has not. Humanity is still a few materials science
| breakthroughs and a Nobel in physics or two away from a
| space elevator tether that can operate on Earth. Many have
| suggested carbon nanotubes, but nobody knows if you can
| actually practically manufacture a tether out of them.
| Shivetya wrote:
| I really doubt that by the time technology lets us build a
| space elevator that we would actually find it worthwhile to
| build it, at least here on Earth.
|
| Instead those resources and technology development would be
| better used in creating the manufacturing processes needed to
| operate in space by mining the moon and capturing asteroids.
|
| You don't need a whole lot of manufacturing lifted into space
| before you can make it self sustaining and growing of its own
| work.
| scsilver wrote:
| Id rather put public cloud up there, crunching numbers and
| putting off heat into space.
| rotexo wrote:
| Aside from launch costs, isn't heat management one of the
| hardest parts about schemes like that? I'm obviously not an
| aerospace engineer, but I thought the vacuum breaks most heat
| dissipation schemes
| rococode wrote:
| Sounds like a good exploratory step towards reaching the tech
| capabilities we need to build Dyson spheres (or similar
| megastructures harvesting energy in space) someday in the far
| future. I doubt the tech we have now is enough to make anything
| particularly useful or efficient, but we've gotta start learning
| somewhere!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
| binbag wrote:
| It's a nice idea until the beam loses its target for a moment and
| wipes out Western Europe.
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(page generated 2021-04-02 23:02 UTC)