What Is Solar Power?
When talking about solar energy, the working principles are relatively simple and straightforward. The first step you take is, install solar panels on the roof and then as the process goes they convert sunlight into electricity mostly during the daytime. However, higher-performance systems can even generate energy during cloudy days or even during the night. One thing you should keep in mind is, although, the solar-powered station can work under these more critical conditions- the efficiency will drop after a point of time.
In addition to that, the Earth’s atmosphere, it shields the planet from too much of the sun’s energy. Now, imagine, if you could put a solar panel into the Earth’s orbit at around 22,000 miles up. See, the concept of space-based solar power was theorized 40 years back by a very renowned scientist named Peter Glaser. After his discovery and in response to the periodical energy crises, the idea has since been adopted by the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, and some of the major aerospace companies and countries like Japan and India.
Many studies have shown that there is no technological barrier to start implementing space-based solar power. The significant impediment has been identified as being economics because it might be a challenge to provide SBSP at a competitive price. The earth receives only one part of the 2.3 billion of the sun’s output, that is why space solar panels are by far one of the most significant potential energy resources currently available.
Currently, most spacecraft are using solar panels but using this technology on a much larger scale. In addition to that, if you combine that with proven wireless power transmission can supply nearly all the electrical needs of our planet. Other than this, there are a lot more technologies and infrastructure required to install and make space solar panels more feasible like-
- Low-cost, environmentally-friendly launch vehicles – The vehicles that we are currently using are expensive and pose a real threat to the atmosphere. Less costly and cleaner launch vehicles are a need of the hour.
- Power transmission – You have to put in a little effort to assess how to best transmit power from the satellites to the Earth’s surface.
- Large scale in-orbit construction and operations – In order to gain as much as energy as possible, the solar satellites should be larger than the International Space Station (ISS).
In the end, space solar panels can quickly provide a complete electric transportation system. Hence, new innovative ways to generate large quantities of clean energy is the need of the hour, and a solar farm orbiting in space might be the solution we all need.