China has been making great strides in many different areas, including its advancements in robotics. Now, though, the nation is setting its sights on something beyond our atmosphere, with reports that it wants to create a space-based solar power station.
While this might sound like an out-of-this-world kind of idea (sorry, not sorry), it’s actually pretty on par with what the country is already pulling off with its Three Gorges Dam, which runs on the Yangtze River. This dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, and it has over 20 times the energy-generating capacity of the Hoover Dam.
This new idea, according to reports in the South China Morning Post, basically insinuates that China wants to take the Three Gorges dam and turn its energy-generating capacity into a geostationary space-based solar power station. The entire thing will take time to pull off, but could have the capability of generating endless energy.
Space-based solar power systems like the one China wants to build utilize a series of mirrors that deliver concentrated sunlight onto panels. These panels generate electricity using solar energy, which could then be converted to microwave radiation and beamed down to Earth.
It’s, honestly, a pretty genius way to approach the idea of limitless energy, as space-based solar power stations would obviously be able to generate more electricity than the solar panels here on Earth, as they wouldn’t need to be content with weather and other factors that make solar power on Earth so unreliable.
In fact, the reports suggest China’s space-based solar array could collect enough energy in one year to equate to the total amount of oil that we could ever extract from Earth. That’s insane to think about, and honestly, if China can pull it off, it will seriously change things for the power industry.
Of course, pulling it off will take more than just hopes and dreams. The sheer size of this kind of project is massive. It is so massive that the South China Morning Post says many are calling the idea of a space-based solar power station the “Manhattan Project” of the energy world. But the nation seems intent on succeeding in the endeavor.
And, if plans for this solar array do succeed, it will likely take multiple launches to put all of the pieces into orbit—just like it took multiple launches to piece together the International Space Station. Still, it is inspiring to think about the answer to all of our energy problems being up there, waiting for us to reach out and grab it.
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