China has unveiled an ambitious plan for a huge solar power station that would beam energy continuously back to Earth using microwaves. With a proposed width of 0.6 miles (1 kilometer), the station is touted as a game-changing venture on par with moving the nation’s fabled Three Gorges Dam into geostationary orbit.
The project will be deployed using ultra-heavy launch vehicles, according to Long Lehao, the chief scientist and lead designer of China’s Long March rocket series, stationed about 22,370 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the Earth. According to the scientist, while delivering a recent lecture hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the impact this space station can have, if successful is enormous: “The energy collected in a single year could match the total recoverable oil reserves on Earth.
Overcoming the Limitations of Solar Energy
Traditional solar energy, though increasingly efficient and cost-effective, has inherent limitations in its operation, including cloud cover and the absorption of solar radiation by the atmosphere. An SBSP would avoid these problems by collecting sunlight in space at perhaps up to 10 times the intensity it reaches Earth’s surface and transmit energy back without interruption.
But it is enormously technically and logistically difficult to construct an orbital solar array on this scale. Present plans involve sending up components with the recoverable Long March 9 heavy-lift rocket, or a carrier of at least 150 tons in capability. That same rocket has become essential also for the larger ambitions-such as its plan to set up an international research base on the moon by 2035.
Space Solar Power Efforts Across the Globe
China is by no means in this alone. The same concept attracts the biggest aerospace players: Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman of the United States, the European Space Agency, and Japan’s JAXA. This year, JAXA will launch a small concept satellite to test the feasibility of wireless power transmission.
A Monumental Undertaking
So much so that this mega-project is dubbed “another Three Gorges Dam in space.” Measuring at the largest hydroelectricity work in the world, the Three Gorges Dam provides approximately 100 billion kilowatt-hours each year. Relatively speaking, a space-based solar station should deliver such energy with absolutely no environmental or geological worries, such as those attendant on large projects ashore.
Chinese scientists and policymakers consider this ambitious project an indispensable step toward long-term sustainability in energy resources, despite all the technical difficulties it may involve. If it succeeds, it would probably change the concept of global energy production and also consolidate China’s lead in pioneering space-based infrastructure.
