Is it feasible to collect solar energy in space?

Humans have been looking for ways to use solar energy effectively. As a very clean and renewable energy, solar energy can generate a lot of energy only by capturing sunlight efficiently. For the increasingly scarce resources of the earth, collecting solar energy is a feasible way to make up.

At present, the way of collecting solar energy mainly depends on scattered solar photovoltaic panels, which are arranged in buildings or higher places to collect solar energy.

This method is inefficient, and scientists hope to build a solar energy collection satellite in space, thus improving the efficiency of solar energy capture.

Space solar energy technology has been brewing for decades: as early as the end of 19, nikola tesla proposed wireless power transmission, and this idea has recently entered the public life, and many mobile phones have begun to support wireless charging.

It is the idea of wireless power transmission that makes space solar energy technology begin to appear gradually. 1968, Peter Glaser first put forward the idea of a solar satellite.

The idea of this satellite technology is very simple, that is, to use satellites as close as possible to the sun, and to use solar photovoltaic panels on satellites to collect energy from sunlight.

After the energy is collected, the wireless power transmission technology is used to transmit signals to the earth. On the earth, the receiving antenna is used to receive the energy of the satellite at a long distance, which is provided to the power grid and transmitted to the places where electricity is needed.

Although we have just begun to popularize wireless transmission technology, after the theory was put forward, 1970, California completed tens of kilowatts of long-distance wireless transmission experiments.

Will space solar energy block the earth's sunlight? In order to improve the efficiency of power transmission, satellites often need larger solar energy collection devices. In the original design, the solar sail was a good catching device.

Solar sail can collect sunlight in a large area and convert it into microwave energy, but it also brings other problems-huge solar sail needs higher cost and is very difficult to build; Solar sails will also be driven by sunlight, and scientists must continue to push solar sails in the opposite direction to prevent the sun from "pressing" the solar sails back to the earth.

Because the solar sail is very far away from the earth, from the earth's point of view, the solar sail is only the size of a kite at most, and basically does not produce shadows.

Giant satellite constellation may be a feasible method: at present, it is unrealistic to use huge solar sails as solar energy capture devices, and with the launch of the satellite chain of Space Exploration Technology Company, scientists believe that giant satellite constellation can be used as a device to capture sunlight.

Space exploration technology company can produce nearly 40,000 satellites in five years, which is a very modular production mode and can support large-scale production, thus reducing production costs and hardware costs.

According to the current satellite launch efficiency, if the space solar satellite network starts to launch, it will only take about 10 years to build a shaped space solar satellite network.

According to scientists' calculations, if space solar satellites are launched continuously, it will only take about 100 years, 80% of the earth's energy can be provided by space satellites, and the remaining 20% can be replaced by other renewable energy sources.

To achieve this goal, human beings can basically get rid of dependence on oil and achieve the goal of zero emission. However, due to the surge in the number of satellites, 654.38+0 million people may be needed to participate in space work and be responsible for the maintenance, upgrading and repair of space solar satellites.

Although most people work on the earth now, maybe in a few hundred years, humans will need to work in space ~

Although the space solar energy plan can solve the energy problem of the earth, a large number of satellites will bring very serious space congestion.

The launch of the satellite chain has caused crowded signals in space orbit. If we continue to launch satellites in 100 at high frequency, the whole earth orbit will be full of satellites, and these satellites will make close contact frequently. If there is a collision, the satellites in the whole orbit will suffer.

Although the space solar energy program has been brewing for decades, further exploration is needed to completely change the energy structure of the earth!