Japan and the country’s space agency, JAXA, have spent decades attempting to beam solar energy from space.
In 2015, JAXA scientists successfully transmitted 1.8 kilowatts of power, enough to run an electric kettle, more than 50 metres to a wireless receiver. Japan is now on the verge of bringing the technology one step closer to reality.
According to Nikkei, a Japanese public-private collaboration would try to beam solar energy from space as early as 2025.
The initiative will seek to launch a series of small satellites in orbit, led by Naoki Shinohara, a Kyoto University professor who has been working on space-based solar energy since 2009.
Those will then attempt to beam the solar energy collected by the arrays to ground-based receiving stations hundreds of miles away.
It was proposed in 1968 to use orbiting solar panels and microwaves to transfer energy to Earth. Since then, a few countries, particularly China and the United States, have invested time and money in developing the concept.
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The idea is interesting because orbital solar arrays have the potential to provide an infinite source of renewable energy. Solar panels in space can collect energy at any time of day, and because they use microwaves to beam the power they generate, clouds aren’t an issue.
Even if Japan successfully builds a set of orbital solar arrays, the technology would be more science fiction than reality.
