Comment on Solar panels in space could cut Europe's renewable energy needs by 80%
Cort@lemmy.world 1 day agoBack of the napkin math:
Largest solar sail (much lighter than panels, but doesn’t produce electricity) 2000 sq meters
200w/sq meter
400kwp
Also iirc the space solar farms plans I’ve seen call for re radiating the energy back via microwaves to dedicated receiving towers on the ground
Yeah I’ve seen that. Microwave power beaming would work in theory it’s just electromagnetic radiation after all. But the vast majority of it is going to get absorbed by water molecules, because that’s what microwave radiation does, that’s why it cooks your food.
They’re probably going to bake a lot of seagulls as well.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 12 hours ago
Now factor in the launch costs, and make sure to include the probability of launch and deployment failures.