One small step for solar? Firm envisions solar panels on moon.

Japanese engineers have drawn up plans to install a belt of solar panels around the moon's equator that would collect energy from the sun and beam it back to Earth in the form of microwaves and lasers. It may sound far fetched, but Japan isn't the only country exploring the potential for a solar industry in space.

|
B Mathur/Reuters/File
The moon is seen from New Delhi. Shimizu, one of world’s largest architectural, engineering, and construction firms, has drawn up plans to install a solar belt around the moon's equator that would collect energy from the sun and beam it back to Earth in the form of microwaves and lasers.

Space-based solar panels have been researched by some of the more fanciful scientists on the planet for quite some time based on the clear advantages that such technology would have over earth-based solar panels; such as 24 hours sunlight and no interference from weather patterns. Now a team of Japanese engineers have added a slight twist to the idea and decided to place solar panels on the moon.

Shimizu, one of world’s largest architectural, engineering, and construction firms, has drawn up plans to install a solar belt around the moon's equator that would collect energy from the sun and beam it back to earth in the form of microwaves and lasers. On earth it would be collected by special receiver stations, converted into electricity and then fed into the national grid. (Related article: New Efficient Materials Promise a Photovoltaic Revolution)

Aware of the difficulties of constructing arrays in space, Shimizu intends to use a fleet of remote controlled robots to install the Luna Ring, which would stretch across the entire 6,800 mile lunar equator, with a width of 248 miles. That comes to a total area of solar panels of 1,686,400 square miles, enough to generate 13,000 terawatts of energy. 

Shimizu’s engineers have calculated that the moon’s equator receives a steady stream of solar energy, and just like the panels in space, it does not have to worry about interference from weather formations. They state that “virtually inexhaustible, non-polluting solar energy is the ultimate source of green energy that brings prosperity to nature as well as our lives.” (Related article: New Efficient Materials Promise a Photovoltaic Revolution)

As crazy as this may sound, NASA has actually been investigating the potential of space-based solar for some years, and is looking to test some of its ideas with the genuine aim of creating a solar industry in space. Shimizu is just as confident, expecting to demonstrate the idea as soon as 2020, and then begin actually construction on the moon by 2035.

Obviously such a radical idea is not without its critics. Professor Werner Hofer, the director of the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy as the University of Liverpool, explained that “doing this in space is not a good idea because it is fantastically expensive and you probably never recover the energy you have to invest.”

Original article: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Japanese-Firm-Wants-to-Install-a-Solar-Belt-around-the-Equator-of-the-Moon.html

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to One small step for solar? Firm envisions solar panels on moon.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/1202/One-small-step-for-solar-Firm-envisions-solar-panels-on-moon
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe