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India to apply solar space power 2020-30 for rural lighting

by SOLARLIFE | May 30, 2008 at 08:53 am

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Yet Mehta has another solution for India's chronic electricity shortage -- one that does not involve power plants on the ground but instead massive sun-gathering satellites in geosynchronous orbits 22,000 miles up in the sky.

The satellites would electromagnetically beam gigawatts of solar energy back to ground-based receivers, where it would then be converted to electricity and transferred to power grids. And because in high earth orbit, satellites are unaffected by the earth's shadow virtually 365 days a year, the floating power plants could provide round-the-clock clean, renewable electricity all year round.

"This will be kind of a leap frog action instead of just crawling," said Mehta, who is the director of India operations for Space Island Group, a California-based company working to develop solar satellites. "It is a win-win situation."

American scientist Peter Glaser first introduced the idea of space solar power in 1968.

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azzayindia

at 09:16 on May 30th, 2008

i cannot comment on what moonwolf is saying but 20 or 30 seems far fetched considering the bottlenecks in india.

the government and buerocrats love big hydro projects because the scope of corruption is high their.

I had a solar lamp which worked only for a month. sO I AM NOT TO SURE ON DURABILITY PART

SOLARLIFE

at 09:23 on May 30th, 2008

Good point moonwolf, can understand that's new, browse videoexplainer

solar space to earth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoxXlF9mepU

Tesla did wireless power transmission, microwave is one way, laser transmisson for small rural applications, France working on it for it's islands, china has plans, all together thinking of second stage moon base for power generation, so send me more opinions and plant some flowers with me.

SOLARLIFE

at 09:26 on May 30th, 2008

hy azzayindia, would work 25 years, however day and night without batteries, if in right orbit.

SOLARLIFE

at 12:58 on May 30th, 2008

Well moonwolf all what i can say, the future is unpredictable, you may remember the old Perry Rhodan science fiction stories, they all had the idea to beam from the outer space energy down to the planet. I agree we should make the future energy discussion "nowpublic". De-central renewable energy solutions home by home need a change in culture, are we ready to accept this ?

I did not make any commentary as intro, because I want it to leave to the reader to make an opinion. One day we will see for sure corridors for energy space to earth, if we want or not. A new de-central self sufficient energy society would be a challenge, if same time a green economy supports the income side. Would be interesting to start a discussion. Thanks for your profound effort. We should not forget, people in rural areas will not stay without light and without information energy.