The Nordic nation might be the first to receive commercial power from space.

UK-based company Space Solar is partnering with Reykjavik Energy and Icelandic sustainability initiative Transition Labs to develop a space-based solar power plant that can deliver about 30 megawatts of electricity – potentially enough to power between 1,500 and 3,000 homes – from 2030. The system will collect sunlight in space through solar panels and then transmit it as radio waves at a specific frequency to a ground station, where it will be converted to electricity for the grid.

The satellite is expected to be scalable and quite big. Even if a full version of their CASSIOPeiA power array is not built, we are talking about the heaviest single object in space that is not a space station, and when all the arrays are splayed out, much larger than the International Space Station.

The company aims to have a scaled-up version of the system in space by 2036, which would supply gigawatts of electricity.

  • django@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    11·
    4 days ago

    First space death ray confirmed. Exciting news!

    Edit:

    No, the system by design cannot be used as or converted into a weapon.

    The aperture size of transmitter and receiving antenna are sized to keep the maximum beam intensity at or below 245 W/m2. This is only one quarter of the intensity of sunlight at midday, which is around 1,000 W/m2.

    Lacking a common power bus, it would not be possible to re-purpose the power distributed across the platform to power a separate laser or particle weapon.

    https://www.spacesolar.co.uk/faqs/

    • progandy@feddit.orgEnglish
      6·
      4 days ago

      The aperture size of transmitter and receiving antenna are sized to keep the maximum beam intensity at or below 245 W/m2. This is only one quarter of the intensity of sunlight at midday, which is around 1,000 W/m2.

      So it could be testing the feasability of the next sattelite that will be a weapon with a different aperture size.