China plans to build a 1 GW solar power plant in orbit and transmit power to Earth

As recently as three years ago, the Celestial Empire laid out a project to build a ground-based part of the station to provide reception of high-energy microwave radiation sent from orbit.

Construction was then halted for environmental as well as financial reasons, but just a couple of months ago construction was resumed and will be completed by the end of this year.

And according to the new plan, the ground plant will have to receive power from 1 MW of the orbiting station by 2030, and from 1 GW of the orbiting station by 2049.

So according to a statement by engineers from Chongqing University, the project was supported by both the authorities and the business sector after China set out to decarbonize by 2060.

According to the engineers' calculations, energy transfer from the orbital station located at an altitude of 36,000 km from the Earth's surface will be uninterrupted and will not depend on various weather phenomena. And transmission losses will be only 2%.

It was decided to build the receiving part of the station near the village Heping (southwestern China, Bishan district). An area of 2 hectares was allocated for the active receiving part, and the restricted area around the installation is five times greater than the area of the facility itself.

According to the government plan, China plans to place a 1-megawatt solar power plant in space by 2030. Photo: Xinhua

The area has been completely cleared of all space experiments so far, but local residents are strictly forbidden from entering the protected zone.

As you know, at the moment, scientists at the center are working on capturing energy from balloons located only 300 meters above the Earth's surface. Next on the plan will be experiments with the reception of energy from the blimps, which will rise to a height of 20 km, and only after that the experiments will move fully to the near-Earth orbit.

According to the roadmap of the project, the first orbital solar station should be ready by 2030, and its design capacity will be equal to 1 MW, and in full power, the project will work when the power of the station will be brought to 1 GW.

Scientists want to time this event to 2049, when exactly 100 years will be celebrated since the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

Until that time, scientists have to solve many problems, in particular, it is necessary to find out whether the microwave power transmission will not cause harm to health, and will not interfere with the work of ground-based devices.

So all possible difficulties will be studied and solved in a practical way in the new center, for the construction of which about 100 million yuan (about 15.4 million U.S. dollars) has already been allocated.

Well, it will be extremely curious to watch the realization of such an ambitious Chinese project to obtain energy from orbiting solar stations. Write in the comments, how do you think China will succeed?

Well, if you liked the material, then rate it and do not forget to subscribe to the channel. Thank you for your attention!