| Submit your comments on this article |
| Science & Technology |
| PG&E makes deal for space solar power! |
| 2009-04-14 |
| Utility to buy orbit-generated electricity from Solaren in 2016, at no risk California's biggest energy utility announced a deal Monday to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity from a startup company that plans to beam the power down to Earth from outer space, beginning in 2016. Solaren would generate the power using solar panels in Earth orbit and convert it to radio-frequency transmissions that would be beamed down to a receiving station in Fresno, PG&E said. From there, the energy would be converted into electricity and fed into PG&E's power grid |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #7 grom: And HOW big does the antenna need to be to reduce the power density of the RF to safe levels?... Not saying it wouldn't work. I'm saying it'll never happen. Too much land tied up under the antenna, too many fluffy bunnies or spotted snakes displaced/inconvenienced, etc. etc. We're talking California here. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-04-14 14:16 |
| #6 What could possibly go wrong? Nothing. Whatever did not go according to plan would only result in an improvement to Fresno. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-04-14 13:11 |
| #5 Ooops, I meant "SF &" |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-04-14 13:07 |
| #4 The detail,including the safety considerations were worked out by |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-04-14 13:06 |
| #3 I see it as possible, but transmission losses for beamed power will keep it from being much more than a PR stunt, The transmission straight down is the problem, satellite to satellite have NO losses due to air dissipation. (Beam spreading and length of transmission have their own losses) But a beam powerful enough to generate enough electricity to use is a deadly microwave beam, all aircraft must divert or be fried. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-04-14 12:36 |
| #2 Big-ass antenna outside Fresno. High-power RF blanketing the area. What could possibly go wrong? |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-04-14 12:33 |
| #1 Interesting but it says nothing about how radio-requency transmissions to a receiving station in Fresno are converted to electrical energy. How does that work? Or does it? And if it does then couldn't anybody with the right equipment also receive those transmissions and convert them to energy, thus ripping off Solaren and PG&E? Is this a practical idea or a pipe dream? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-04-14 12:16 |