Beam it down, Scotty.
A new federal study released yesterday concluded that continued increases in oil prices finally might make the generation of solar power in orbit economically competitive. The report urged the government to sponsor a demonstration of the technology to spur private investment in the concept.
The orbiting power plants would reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil and help reduce the production of carbon dioxide that is contributing to global warming, according to the report led by the National Security Space Office, part of the Department of Defense.
“This is a solution for all mankind,” a former astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, now chairman of the spaceflight advocacy group ShareSpace Foundation, said. Mr. Aldrin joined with a group of other space advocacy organizations to unveil the report in Washington.
Since the advent of the space age 50 years ago, scientists have dreamed of launching acres of photovoltaic cells into orbit and beaming the electricity electromagnetically to Earth’s surface but have stumbled over the cost of the project and the technical difficulties.
The report estimated that in a single year, satellites in a continuously sunlit orbit could generate an amount of energy nearly equivalent to the energy available in all of the world’s oil reserves.
Mark Hopkins, senior vice president of the National Space Society, said space-based solar energy could generate so much power that it could transform America from an energy-importing into an energy-exporting nation.
“It is the largest energy option which is available to us today in the sense that it would derive more power potentially than all of the other power sources combined,” Mr. Hopkins said.
http://www.nysun.com/article/64360
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Consistent with the US National Security Strategy, energy and environmental security are not just problems for America, they are critical challenges for the entire world. Expanding human populations and declining natural resources are potential sources of local and strategic conflict in the 21stCentury, and many see energy scarcity as the foremost threat to national security.
Conflict prevention is of particular interest to security?providing institutions such as the U.S. Department of Defense which has elevated energy and environmental security as priority issues with a mandate to proactively fid and create solutions that ensure U.S. and partner strategic security is preserved.
The magnitude of the looming energy and environmental problems is significant enough to warrant consideration of all options, to include revisiting a concept called Space Based Solar Power (SBSP) first invented in the United States almost 40 years ago. The basic idea is very straightforward: place very large solar arrays into continuously and intensely sunlit Earth orbit (1,366 watts/m2) , collect gigawatts of electrical energy, electromagnetically beam it to Earth, and receive it on the surface for use either as baseload power via direct connection to the existing electrical grid, conversion into manufactured synthetic hydrocarbon fuels, or as low?intensity broadcast power beamed directly to consumers. A single kilometre-wide band of geosynchronous earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contain within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today. This amount of energy indicates that there is enormous potential for energy security, economic development, improved environmental stewardship, advancement of general space faring, and overall national security for those nations who construct and possess a SBSP capability.
NASA and DOE have collectively spent $80M over the last three decades in sporadic efforts studying this concept (by comparison, the U.S. Government has spent approximately $21B over the last 50 years continuously pursuing nuclear fusion). The first major effort occurred in the 1970’s where scientific feasibility of the concept was established and a reference 5 GW design was proposed. Unfortunately 1970’s architecture and technology levels could not support an economic case for development relative to other lower?cost energy alternatives on the market.
In 1995?1997 NASA initiated a Fresh Look”Study to re?examine the concept relative to modern technological capabilities. The report (validated by the National Research Council) indicated that technology vectors to satisfy SBSP development were converging quickly and provided recommended development focs areas, but for various reasons that again included the relatively lower cost of other energies, policy makers elected not to pursue a development effort.
The post?9/11 situation has changed that calculus considerably. Oil prices have jumped from $15/barrel to now $80/barrel in less than a decade. In addition to the emergence of global concerns over climate change, American and allied energy source security is now under threat from actors that seek to destabilize or control global energy markets as well as increased energy demand competition by emerging global economies. Our National Security Strategy recognizes that many nations are too dependent on foreign oil, often imported from unstable portions of the world, and seeks to remedy the problem by accelerating the deployment of clean technologies to enhance energy security, reduce poverty, and reduce pollution in a way that will ignite an era of global growth through free markets and free trade. Senior U.S. leaders need solutions with strategic impact that can be delivered in a relevant period of time.
http://spacesolarpower.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/final-sbsp-interim-assessment-release-01.pdf