04-09-2022, 12:15 AM
When it comes to power supplies, my favourite is Solar Power Satellites.
Yes, I am a SF freak, and yes, I even write the stuff, but there are major reasons why I like this system.
What does it consist of?
SPS consists of a series of huge mirrors in space that collect and focus the sunlight into a collector. The collector them beams the energy directly to a base station on Earth that converts the energy into electricity, which is then available to the entire grid.
My reasons:
[1] Like a dam, the initial costs are almost the only costs you have. The collector satellites can collect 24 hours a day, 365.25 days per year and they can be made almost as large as you wish. The material requires a little effort holding it in space, but can be basically like Aluminium foil. There is no structural strength required. The satellites are in orbit and don't require much at all to maintain them.
[2] Your base station is best placed in a desert area where they are few, if any, humans. The energy beams down every single minute of every day, however, it doesn't have to be visible light. You just have to be careful not to fly through it.
[3] Australia has plenty of desert that would be perfect for such base station. We would become the world's largest energy source. Taxes and royalties would be minimal per kilowatt of power, but would supply the government with huge quantities of money. And no government that has ever existed doesn't want more money.
[4] The collectors would be a series of satellites in orbit that would shift the energy around so that it is always focussed on the base station.
[5] There is space construction required, but I am all for as much of this as we can manage. The actual engineering is relatively straight forward. There are so many resources out there that do not have populations restricting their use.
The idea has been around for a long time, but neither the Soviets (in their day) nor the Americans were willing to cough up the money. That is probably more the case now, as most people just don't think of space construction. After all, nobody bothers to put reasonable quantities of money into the International Space Station, and that is a tiny triviality.
There is enormous profit to made from materials and energy is orbit, and it would produce so much energy that we could retire fossil fuels. Cheap energy is the key to improving life for all humans.
I do understand that it would take time, but I have a lot more patience than the eco-freaks do. They want an immediate end to fossil fuel usage, which is impossible.
Yes, I am a SF freak, and yes, I even write the stuff, but there are major reasons why I like this system.
What does it consist of?
SPS consists of a series of huge mirrors in space that collect and focus the sunlight into a collector. The collector them beams the energy directly to a base station on Earth that converts the energy into electricity, which is then available to the entire grid.
My reasons:
[1] Like a dam, the initial costs are almost the only costs you have. The collector satellites can collect 24 hours a day, 365.25 days per year and they can be made almost as large as you wish. The material requires a little effort holding it in space, but can be basically like Aluminium foil. There is no structural strength required. The satellites are in orbit and don't require much at all to maintain them.
[2] Your base station is best placed in a desert area where they are few, if any, humans. The energy beams down every single minute of every day, however, it doesn't have to be visible light. You just have to be careful not to fly through it.
[3] Australia has plenty of desert that would be perfect for such base station. We would become the world's largest energy source. Taxes and royalties would be minimal per kilowatt of power, but would supply the government with huge quantities of money. And no government that has ever existed doesn't want more money.
[4] The collectors would be a series of satellites in orbit that would shift the energy around so that it is always focussed on the base station.
[5] There is space construction required, but I am all for as much of this as we can manage. The actual engineering is relatively straight forward. There are so many resources out there that do not have populations restricting their use.
The idea has been around for a long time, but neither the Soviets (in their day) nor the Americans were willing to cough up the money. That is probably more the case now, as most people just don't think of space construction. After all, nobody bothers to put reasonable quantities of money into the International Space Station, and that is a tiny triviality.
There is enormous profit to made from materials and energy is orbit, and it would produce so much energy that we could retire fossil fuels. Cheap energy is the key to improving life for all humans.
I do understand that it would take time, but I have a lot more patience than the eco-freaks do. They want an immediate end to fossil fuel usage, which is impossible.
Live Long and Prosper!