China plans to build a 1 GW solar power plant in orbit and transmit power to Earth
Three years ago, a project was laid in the Celestial Empire to create the ground part of the station to ensure the reception of high-energy microwave radiation sent from orbit.
Then construction was suspended for environmental as well as financial reasons, but just a couple of months ago, construction was resumed and will be completed by the end of this year.
And according to the new plan, the ground installation will have to receive energy from 1 MW of the orbital station by 2030, and by 2049 from 1 GW of the orbital station.
So, according to engineers from Chongqing University, the project was supported by both the authorities and the business sphere after China set a course for decarbonization by 2060.
According to the calculations of engineers, the transmission of energy from the orbital station, located at an altitude of 36 thousand meters km from the surface of the Earth, will be continuous and will not depend on various weather phenomena. And transmission losses will be only 2%.
It was decided to build the receiving part of the station near the Heping village (southwestern part of China, Bishan region). An area of 2 hectares was allocated for the active receiving part, and the exclusion zone around the facility is five times the area of the facility itself.
So local residents are strictly forbidden to enter the protected area, although so far no space experiments are being carried out in that area.
As you know, at the moment, the center's scientists are working on capturing energy from balloons located at an altitude of only 300 meters from the Earth's surface. Further, according to the plan, there will be experiments with the reception of energy from airships, which will be raised to an altitude of 20 km and only after that the experiments will fully go into low-earth orbit.
According to the project roadmap, the first orbital solar station should be ready by 2030, and its the design capacity will be equal to 1 MW, and the project will start working at full capacity when the power of the station is brought to 1 GW.
Scientists want to time this event to 2049, when exactly 100 years from the founding of the PRC will be celebrated.
Until that time, scientists have to solve many problems, so, in particular, it is necessary to find out whether it will cause harm to health microwave energy transmission, and will not cause strong interference with the operation of terrestrial devices.
Thus, all possible difficulties will be studied and resolved in a practical way in the new center, for the construction of which about 100 million yuan (approximately 15.4 million US dollars) have already been allocated.
Well, it will be extremely interesting to watch the implementation of such an ambitious project in China to obtain energy from orbiting solar stations. Write in the comments how, in your opinion, will China succeed?
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