Space-based solar power could help Europe reach net-zero by 2050 by reducing the need for land-based renewable energy.
  • clb92@feddit.dkEnglish
    4·
    12 hours ago

    <wildly unrealistic idea> could <wildly unrealistic improvement>

    Yet another useless article that hinges entirely on the word ‘could’. I can make stuff up too:

    “1 windmill placed in every front yard could slash power prices by 99.9%”

    “Solar panels mounted on every cat and dog could solve all our power needs”

    “Painting all buildings in the world with reflective paint could save the polar ice caps by 2027”

  • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
    11·
    2 days ago

    Ah yes. “This energy would then be transmitted to one or more stations on Earth”. Simple eh?

  • onslaught545@lemmy.zip
    11·
    2 days ago

    There’s absolutely no mention in the article about how the generated power would be transmitted back to earth.

      • IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org
        2·
        1 day ago

        Microwave scattering is an absolute nightmare over that kind of distance. Even for much shorter distances, microwaves are only practical to transport over a couple of meters in a waveguide.

        If its transmitting to a base station, we can assume it’s in geosynchronous orbit, or about 22,000 miles from the surface. With a fairly large dish on the satellite, you could probably keep the beam fairly tight until it hit the atmosphere, but that last ~100 miles of air would scatter it like no tomorrow. Clouds and humidity are also a huge problem – water is an exceptionally good absorber in most of the MW band.

        I saw numbers reported for the transmission efficiency somewhere (will update this if I can find it again), and they were sub-30%. The other 70% is either boiling clouds on its way down, or missing the reviever on the ground and gently cooking the surrounding area.

        • Deyis@beehaw.org
          1·
          1 day ago

          gently cooking the surrounding area.

          As in it’s slightly but not perceptively warmer or more like “oh god, we’re all going to die”?

          • IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org
            2·
            1 day ago

            Depends on how much power is being transmitted to each base station, but it would have to be a colossal satellite to be “we’re all going to die”.

            I pointed that out mostly as a limitation on how much power could be transmitted to each base station.

      • Lodespawn@aussie.zoneEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        Hoo boy that’s pretty light on details about scale, there’s a few buzz words in there too, I hope they can develop it enough to make it viable in large capacities.

        • Deyis@beehaw.org
          2·
          1 day ago

          To be fair, the source I gave isn’t anything like a journal or technical document for specifics.