For the past few decades, humans have invented and advanced technology that makes it possible to harness the power of the Sun. All solar panels that are used to fuel the planet’s need for electricity are located on the Earth’s surface. Up until recently, no organization ever went forward with plans to create a network of solar panels that could be used to farm power in space.
Chinese researchers announced late last week that they planned on having launched the solar farm’s components into space by 2025.
The sunlight that hits the Earth’s surface has been filtered by the atmosphere, effectively making it weaker than how strong it is before it crosses the Earth’s atmosphere. The aforementioned researchers shared that the Sun’s rays in outer space could pull together usable energy at more than five times the rate of solar panels around the Earth.
News of the Chinese researchers’ plans was published in Science and Technology Daily, a popular Chiese magazine, last week.
According to a report from the likes of the Sydney Morning Herald, the so-called solar farm would be launched into space at somewhere around 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. The receivers would transform sunlight into energy on their own, then that energy would be transferred down to planet Earth via the redirection of light.
As long as no issues stem from rare conditions of the atmosphere and regular changes in the planet’s four seasons, the solar farm is expected to be in operation more than 99 percent of the time.
The massive network of solar panels would likely be far too expensive for transport via traditional satellite launchers. As such, the researchers responsible for the planned solar farm have begun thinking about the feasibility of whether three-dimensional printers or robots could be used to manufacture the network of solar panels.
Although it might seem like the idea of a solar farm thousands and thousands of miles away from planet Earth’s surface is a new endeavor, NASA first toyed with plans for the solar farm some 40 years ago. NASA decided to research the potential of the so-called solar farm at the time of the Arab oil embargo to effectively diversify the United States’ sources of energy if the Arab oil embargo had actually lasted very much longer.
The satellites themselves are thought to cost about one-half of a billion dollars.
