<Are There Demand Limits to Growth? The Oil Drum Drumbeat: April 20, 2009>

187 comments on Space Solar Power: Star Player on the Bench

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Darwinian on April 19, 2009 - 9:10am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Boof, the beam would be electromagnetic, ratio waves that is, not light. There is no way to keep the waves from spreading out. Even a pencil beam spreads.

The very idea is absurd however. The expense would greatly outweigh the tiny amounts of power it would generate. It is science fiction that people just love to talk about.

Ron P.

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Boof on April 19, 2009 - 9:31am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The receiver on the right side image looks all shiny hence my assumption. I think laser light can be kept to a narrow beam. Still some sensitive ground equipment might not like an off-course microwave beam which makes the satellite a good target for the bad guys.

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gneiss1 on April 19, 2009 - 9:39am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I still fondly remember SimCity 2000, which featured these as one of the available power plant technologies. Occasionally the beam would miss and a suburb would catch fire :-)

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The Dude on April 19, 2009 - 1:55pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I guarantee you that would be a NIMBY objection, just as people will violently protest nukes because Jack Lemmon had a heart attack and there were all those bad welds and they wouldn't let Jane Fonda tell her story on the air.

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ccpo on April 21, 2009 - 9:57am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I guarantee you that would be a NIMBY objection

Then build the things out on the continental shelves. Works for oil.

Cheers

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joule on April 19, 2009 - 10:26am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Darwinian -

As I recall, at least in the concept proposed by Peter Glaser, the microwave receiving array on earth would cover quite a large area, probably almost as large as the space-based collectors themselves. So, it appears to me that the spreading of the micro-wave beam has already been taken into account (though I am hardly qualified to prove this).

The proponents also argued that the microwave beam would be so dilute and have such a low energy flux that it would not endanger human or animal life that found itself within the beam. This could be true or just wishful thinking.

The beam issue you raised is probably the least of the many conceptual flaws inherent in this whole concept.

As I commented elsewhere, this whole thing has the distinct aroma of pork.

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187 comments on Space Solar Power: Star Player on the Bench

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