The European space agency has planned to beam electricity wirelessly from space to power millions of homes. The agency is considering to fund a 3 year study called Solaris. It would check the possibility and cost effectiveness of installing huge solar farms in space.
Engineers have planned to build vast solar arrays in space using robots. The solar arrays would capture the power of the Sun and convert it into microwaves. These microwaves would be beamed towards Earth, where it would be collected by antennas over a huge area and turned into electricity.
Although scientists at Munich have successfully performed this experiment on very small scale. But it is still a big challenge to execute it on much larger scale.
In an experiment conducted at the aerospace firm Airbus, two kilowatts of power was collected from solar panels. The collected power was transmitted from one end of the room to the other. This power was used to light up a model city.
But there is a long way to go to deploy it for practical purpose.
Both the transmission distance and power needs to be increased millions of times for this technology to work. But the engineers are hopeful and believe that it can be done.
One big advantage of installing solar panels in space is that it can get solar energy 24 hours a day. It is not possible on earth during night time and in the presence of clouds.
So lets hope for the success of this technology, which has the potential to solve our energy shortage issues.
Engineers have planned to build vast solar arrays in space using robots. The solar arrays would capture the power of the Sun and convert it into microwaves. These microwaves would be beamed towards Earth, where it would be collected by antennas over a huge area and turned into electricity.
Although scientists at Munich have successfully performed this experiment on very small scale. But it is still a big challenge to execute it on much larger scale.
In an experiment conducted at the aerospace firm Airbus, two kilowatts of power was collected from solar panels. The collected power was transmitted from one end of the room to the other. This power was used to light up a model city.
But there is a long way to go to deploy it for practical purpose.
Both the transmission distance and power needs to be increased millions of times for this technology to work. But the engineers are hopeful and believe that it can be done.
One big advantage of installing solar panels in space is that it can get solar energy 24 hours a day. It is not possible on earth during night time and in the presence of clouds.
So lets hope for the success of this technology, which has the potential to solve our energy shortage issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment