Today, field testing of long-distance power transmission systems began in Japan. The goal of the project is to develop technologies for collecting solar energy in orbit and transmitting it to Earth. Solar panels at an altitude of 36,000 km will be able to operate around the clock and will generate energy 10 times more efficiently than on the earth’s surface. This is humanity’s dream of clean energy, towards which the first step has been taken today.
Image source: Kyoto University
The idea of generating energy from the Sun in Earth’s orbit was born in the 60s of the last century. It has undeniable advantages, but there are still so many disadvantages that it is very, very difficult to implement the transfer of energy from space to Earth. Firstly, there is no necessary technology. Secondly, it will be extremely expensive. However, you always need to start with technology.
Japan was not the first country to begin experiments with energy transfer from space. Scientists in the USA have advanced the furthest along this path. Last year and this year, the Caltech experimental installation, sent into space in early 2023, performed well. China is also experimenting in this area. At the moment, work is known to be taking place within high-rise buildings with plans to place transmitters on airships.
In Japan, Japan Space Systems (JSS) began testing a system for remote energy transfer. The work will be carried out by order of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. For this purpose, a network of 13 receivers has been deployed on the ground over an area of 600 m2, and transmitters will be suspended under the wings of aircraft. Also, solar panels installed on the wings will collect energy and transmit it to the ground in the form of microwave radiation from an altitude of 5–7 km. The development of the technology will make it possible at the next stage to begin transmitting energy from space, for which a 150-kg satellite will be sent into orbit next year.
Even if everything goes well, experts talk about the difficulty of scaling such solutions. For example, to transmit energy of about 1 GW from space, a field of panels with an area of 2 km2 is required. All this will weigh 10 thousand tons and cost at least $6.7 billion at current prices. It will take at least another quarter of a century for these plans to come closer to implementation.