Solar Power: A Sci-Fi Solution?

For this blog post, I will be talking about solar power. I am interested in solar power because there is a house by mine that has solar panels attached to it. Solar power seems like such a simple answer to our energy needs. As otherpower.com points out, solar power is currently the only zero maintenance, zero fuel cost electric generator power source (http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_solar.html).

 Solar power is a completely renewable resource and doesn't have the same problems associated with coal in terms of creating electricity. It's cleaner, it's not dangerous to mine, and no parts have to replaced on panels and no energy is used to utilize them. So why isn't solar power more widely used? The problem has always been a matter of surface area. As I had pointed out in my last post with a cartoon, it would take an immense amount of space in order to create the energy we need solely from solar power. Logistically there is just no way to get all the power we need only by, say putting panels on each house, etc. There is no solution... until now.

How about solar panels in space?

In space you say? That's absurd! Complete science fiction! Maybe not. 

"Unfurled in space, the panels would bask in near-constant sunshine - uninterrupted by clouds or bad weather -  and provide a steady flow of electricity day and night.

An artist's impression of the planned solar array which will be launched into space on a rocket and will transmit solar power back to Earth in radio waves

The orbiting solar 'farm' would collect energy from the sun and then convert it into radio waves which would beam the power back to antennae in California.

The radio transmissions would then be converted into usable electricity and fed back into the conventional power grid.

Sunlight in space is at least ten times more powerful than that on Earth, making orbiting solar panels far more efficient than those which are land-based."

Nasa proved the theory of sending solar power through radio waves in 2008 when solar power was beamed 90 miles between two Hawaiian Islands. So what's stopping us from generating unlimited power? Why haven't we sent up armies of solar panels? Because with alternative energy, you know there is always a catch: "even though the solar array would unfurl on its own, the costs of sending the satellite into space are extremely high and repairs on the panels would be impossible." Even so, plans to send a prototype satellite are in place for within the next year. It is estimated that a solar array could create one gigawatt of power almost continuously, making it equal to the output of a nuclear generator. As a final note to this idea, "Daniel Kammen, professor in energy and resources at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Guardian: 'The ground rules are looking kind of promising. It is doable. Whether it is doable at a reasonable cost, we just don't know.' "

source:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1170945/How-solar-panels-space-used-beam-renewable-energy-Earth.html