Anicet Mbida 6:53 a.m., June 10, 2022

Every day, Anicet Mbida makes us discover an innovation that could well change the way we consume.

This Friday, he is interested in China, which will launch a solar power plant in space.

The goal is to put a giant satellite into orbit with huge solar panels and send all the energy collected back to earth.

It is now official: China will launch a solar power plant in space.

Work will even start earlier. 

We knew that China had a project in the pipeline.

The first shipments were supposed to start in 2030. They are now advanced to 2028, two years earlier.

Because they are ahead of the development of technology. 

We recall the objective: to put a giant satellite into orbit with huge solar panels and send all the energy recovered back to earth.

Advantage: this allows electricity to be produced permanently since, in space, there are no nights, no clouds, no atmosphere… So a sun which gives its maximum energy power all the time.

By the way, we no longer occupy any floor space.

We avoid covering the fields with solar panels. 

But how do we send electricity back to earth? 

With a microwave beam.

Solar energy is first converted into radio waves.

Then sent to a large antenna on the ground which then converts it back into electricity. 

It's not a new idea.

NASA was already interested in it in the 1970s, after the oil crisis.

But she never went beyond experimentation.

China, for its part, plans a deployment in four stages: sending the first equipment in 2028. Two years later, in 2030, commissioning of a first small power plant in orbit.

Followed by a larger one in 2035. Before arriving, in 2050, at the equivalent of the power of a nuclear power plant. 

We are still talking about an installation of one square kilometer of solar panels.

It seems huge, but if we wanted to do the same thing with panels on the ground, we would need an area of ​​more than 20 km². 

And is only China planning this kind of installation? 

On this scale yes.

Most countries mainly carry out tests, in particular the transfer of energy from space to the earth (this is the case of Japan and the United States).

The United Kingdom seems the most ambitious.

We have just voted $16 billion in funding for research.

The first experiments planned for 2035, that is to say well after China.

If she sticks to her schedule, she should already have her mini space powerhouse operational.