Japan is aiming to capture solar energy from orbiting satellites and wirelessly transmit it to Earth while Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Twitter, pushes the boundaries of space exploration with his business SpaceX to send people back to the moon and eventually to Mars.
According to a Nikkei story, scientists will be able to test the device in space by 2025 thanks to decades of development by Japan and the Japanese space agency Jaxa.
For the first time since Jaxa’s scientists wirelessly sent 1.8 kilowatts to a receiver located 50 meters away in 2015, solar energy will be harnessed in space and beam to Earth in the much awaited experiment.
The same mechanism will be improved to send solar energy harvested in orbit to specialized receiving stations on Earth ten years from now, even though the energy communicated in 2015 may only be sufficient to power a kettle.
Public-private partnership in Japan aims to use space-based solar energy
If it is effective, Japan’s public-private cooperation might herald a sea change in the way the world views sustainable energy, especially in areas with little sunshine or in the chilly winter months.
The ambitious project is being directed by Kyoto University professor Naoki Shinohara, who has worked on space-based solar energy since 2009.
The initial phase of the project would include placing into orbit a number of tiny satellites that were fitted with solar modules.
It is anticipated (programmed) that the satellites would transmit the solar energy arrays they have gathered to receivers placed on the ground as they circle the planet.
It will be possible to transmit microwaves hundreds of kilometers distant to ground receivers by converting the energy captured by solar cells.
Is Solar Energy Transmitted from Space Practical?
Around 1968, numerous other nations, including the United States and China, began researching beam solar energy technologies.
The European orbit Agency (ESA) suggested funding solar energy technologies for use in orbit last year. In two investigations, the European Space Agency (ESA) demonstrated that photovoltaic system efficiency in space was much better than that on Earth, according to a Futurezone article.
Regardless of the time of day or the state of the weather, satellites have the capacity to continually harvest energy. Additionally, they are able to be placed such that they receive sunlight at a precise 90-degree angle, providing the best power output.
Despite the technology’s quick popularity, some detractors claim that efficiency may not always transfer into better electrical production. According to the technique, energy must first be transformed into microwaves for wireless transmission before being transformed back into useful power.
The amount of satellites that would need to be launched into orbit in order to produce power at levels that are commercially sustainable would be another barrier.
To put it another way, it is projected that Japan and Jaxa will spend around $7 billion to develop a system capable of producing 1 gigawatt of power, even if they are successful.
A nuclear power station with an output of 1.6 gigawatts, like Block 3 of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in Finland, might be built for as little as $5 billion, but if prices are compared in a more basic way, it could cost as much as 11 billion euros.
Building wind or solar panel systems with the same output, however, would only cost a fraction of that, almost 5 times less, according to estimates provided by Futurezone.
