Japan's Solar Scheme Both Out of the Box and Out of This World

The Land of the Rising Sun appears poised to reach for truly lofty heights in advancing the realm of what's possible in transforming sunlight into energy.

The plan, which PhysOrg reports that Japanese scientists and policy makers hope to have in place by 2030, will capture solar energy from a series of satellites, and send the energy down to Earth via laser or microwave to receivers that will transform the signal into electricity.

It all sounds so very far-flung and fanciful, but the idea has been kicked around for decades. In fact, the accompanying illustration is actually a NASA conceptualization of the same principle dating from 1976.

The Japanese, however, have continued to work diligently beyond the drawing board, laying the technical groundwork for this groundbreaking approach to clean renewable energy for the past decade.

The project is called the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), and it will involve several square kilometers of solar panels that would be placed in a geostationary orbit. Parabolic antennae will be placed in guarded locations, possibly at sea, to receive the transferred solar energy that is several times stronger in space compared to how we receive it, filtered by the Earth's atmosphere.

Small-scale trial devices are planned for launch and testing in about 10 years, in successively larger increments of generated power, to permit the scientists at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency the opportunity to asses and refine issues relating to technical and economic feasibility.

It's a truly fascinating approach, this matter of applying a sky's-the-limit mindset to meeting 21st century challenges down here on Earth.

Image courtesy of NASA, via Wikimedia Commons