Sep 06 2009
A Solar Power Station in Space?
In the last few weeks I’ve briefly read over several articles about a possible solar power station being built in space by the Japanese. The proposed 1-gigawatt power station will cost an estimated $21 billion, a huge expense for such little power. The station would only be able to power ~300,000 Japanese homes. The last time I checked, there were many millions of Japanese homes and businesses.
Why would you want to invest this kind of money in a space project to begin with? Think of all the space debris out there… not just the stuff we put out there like satellites and whatnot, but all of the comets, asteroids, etc. I’d hate to be the pilot(s) trying to adjust the enormous panel to avoid such debris.
All of this brings me to one question I’ve always had regarding solar panels: how much would it cost to put panels on every house and business in any one country? The price would be enormous, but very few countries are actually doing anything about their power needs. It’s infuriating sometimes to see that my own country still has no plan for this. We’re be stuck on Saudi (and other) oil for ages before we get our act together. I don’t like the “putting all of our eggs in one basket” approach when it comes to solving energy independence. And it’s these solar power stations that make me cringe. 100 and 200 megawatt stations are popping up across the world, but if they get damaged, that’s a big loss.
To top it off, there is the fact that our electrical grid is woefully outdated. We don’t have nearly enough of the unsightly high voltage towers and wires to meet future demand. The way I see it, the future of energy starts with us and our very own roofs. If we can generate our own power, there would be no need for those ugly, dangerous, loud high voltage towers and wires. I would love to see a world where we generated enough energy to meet our own demand and be completely off the grid, insusceptible to those wishing to hack our electrical grid.