from Hacker News

China Building Solar Station in Space Could Generate Practically Endless Power

by DocFeind on 3/27/25, 1:16 PM with 10 comments

  • by JoeAltmaier on 3/27/25, 1:24 PM

    This is inevitable. As real estate becomes more expensive, especially in urban areas; as lift costs drop geometrically; as solar materials become cheaper and lighter then an obvious solution is a clear, unobstructed station above that can beam energy to the desired location, wherever it's needed.

    Objections come up, like 'we don't know how to beam it efficiently'. This is 1960's thinking. Solutions have been available for years. Conversion from solar to electricity to microwave to ground and back to electricity can all be done with small fractional losses.

    You aren't going to run out of real estate. A station of 100 square miles will be nearly invisible in the firmament.

    I look forward to an era of cheap power and resources (asteroid mining anyone?)

  • by fspeech on 3/27/25, 6:24 PM

    How do you keep it stationary? How do you keep it out of the Earth's shadow a.k.a. night? How do you keep the transmission loss low and receiving station footprint small? How do you avoid harming things that could come into your beams? How do you achieve all the above simultaneously?

  • by slwvx on 3/27/25, 6:05 PM