Building a solar farm where the sun never sets
In the last 200 years, the human population has grown from 1 billion to almost 8 billion strong — and as our population grows, Earth's resources shrink. Although the resources and energy sector continues to develop and deploy innovative solutions to increase extraction efficiencies, improve operational processes and minimise the risk of damage to the environment, the demand for energy is well above what Earth's capable of supplying.
In a hundred years, we will need to produce at least four times more energy than we do today to meet our population's energy demands, says the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) Space & Defence Envoy Dr Paul Scully-Power AM.
"It is vital for Australia to consider our energy supply chain from both a strategic and a climate-conscious perspective if we are to maintain our present standard of living and protect our environment," says Paul, who in 1984, was the first Australian-born astronaut.
Image courtesy of NASA.
"Advances in space technologies and our growing capability in building and launching reliable satellites have now made it feasible to build a solar farm that is based in Earth's orbit, harnessing the Sun's energy and beaming it down to Earth 24/7.
"The energy can be transmitted down to any location on Earth. So for countries like Australia with rural communities, you can beam the energy directly to that community."
The orbit-based solar farm would perhaps look more like a spacecraft made of connected satellites capable of absorbing solar energy and transmitting it to Earth in microwave form, says Paul.
Building space solar farms may sound too futuristic or even fictional, but the concept was invented in the late 1960s by Dr Peter Glaser in the United States. The idea has been revisited time and time again since, but only recently has it become a viable solution.
"The rise in emissions has pushed energy prices higher than ever, which allows space-based solar to be supplied to the market with competitive prices," Paul says.
"Advances in space technologies have a crucial role to play as well. For instance, it is much cheaper to build satellites and launch them into space nowadays than it was ten years ago. We have a company in Australia that's working hand in glove with a company in America and they've already developed a design for a solar-based power system.
"We need the best possible energy advantage to rebuild our manufacturing and grow Australia's might in the space industry. Space solar power gives us continuity of supply for almost 100% of the time and — it is infinitely cheaper than anything that we're using now."
Media: Shahrzad (Zad) Abbasi - 0466 548 145
The NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN), a consortium of eight leading universities across NSW and the ACT, is a not-for-profit innovation network funded by the NSW Government through the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer. The NSSN brings together universities, industry and government to translate world-class research into innovative smart sensing solutions that create value for the economy, environment and society of NSW and beyond.
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