Space-Based Solar Power
Solar panels installed in space could operate almost without interruption, thanks to sunlight ten times more intense than on Earth, while avoiding periods of night and bad weather. This vidéographic explains. VIDEOGRAPHICS
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00:00Space-based solar panels could operate almost continuously using sunlight which is ten times
00:14more intense than on Earth, while avoiding night and bad weather.
00:20The basic concept is to put solar panels in a high geostationary orbit to produce electricity
00:26which is converted to microwaves and beamed to Earth receiving stations, where it is converted
00:30back into electricity and fed into the grid.
00:35This wireless transfer could also allow power to be sent to remote locations on Earth, and
00:40even to the Moon and other planets.
00:43A single solar power satellite of the planned scale would generate around 2 gigawatts of
00:48power, enough to supply more than 1 million homes.
00:52It would take more than 6 million solar panels on the Earth's surface to generate the same
00:56amount.
00:57The biggest challenge is the large size of the structures required.
01:01A single solar power satellite might extend more than a kilometre across and weigh thousands
01:07of tonnes, with the receiver station covering an area more than ten times larger.
01:12For comparison, the International Space Station weighs over 400 tonnes and is 109 metres by
01:1873 metres.
01:22NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology