Japonlar, dış uzayda güneş enerjisi santrali kuracak, santralin üreteceği enerji lazer veya mikrodalga olarak yeryüzüne nakledilecek.
Hükümet, bu “fütürist” santralin kurulabilmesi için kolları sıvadı ve 2030′a doğru dünya yörüngesinde güneş santrali kurulmasına ilişkin projeye katılacak firma ve kurumları belirledi.Japan is developing a giant solar power space generator that it expects to begin transmitting solar energy to earth from an orbit 36,000km above the earth’s within the next 30 years.
The $21bn (£13bn) government-backed project includes plans for the construction of a solar space station comprising four square kilometres of solar panels with a total capacity of 1GW – enough to supply about 294,000 homes in Tokyo, according to a statement posted yesterday on the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry web site.
Yer’den 36 bin kilometre yüksekte kurulacak santral, güneş panellerinden oluşacak. Yeryüzünde kullanılmakta olanlara benzeyen fotovoltaik elementler, güneş enerjisini elektrik enerjisine dönüştürecek. Paneller yerdekinin en az 5 katı fazla elektrik üretecek.
Elektrik akımı, Yer’deki devasa bir parabolik antene lazer veya mikrodalga huzmeleri şeklinde gönderilecek.
Güneş enerjisinin temiz ve sonsuz olduğunu vurgulayan Japon yetkilileri, bu sistemin enerji ihtiyacının karşılanmasına ve sera gazlarının yol açtığı küresel ısınmayla mücadeleye katkıda bulunacağını düşünüyor.
Bu muazzam bilimsel ve sınai proje, Japon Uzay Kurumu başkanlığında yürütülecek. Japonlar, bilim-kurgu kitaplarından fırlamışa benzeyen proje üzerinde 1998′den beri çalışıyor.
Bu kapsamda ilkin enerjinin mikrodalga halinde aktarılabilmesi için bir deneme uydusu fırlatılacak. Ardından her biri 10 megavat gücündeki güneş panellerinin robot çalışmalarıyla uzaya yerleştirilmesinin mümkün olup olmayacağı görülecek. Daha sonra 250 megavatlık bir prototip santral yörüngeye oturtulacak. Böylece santral bütünüyle testten geçirilerek maliyet ortaya çıkacak.
Araştırmacılar, nihai olarak 1000 megavatlık sistem kurmayı tasarlıyor. Evdeki hesap çarşıya uyarsa, elektriğin kilovat başına maliyeti, bugünkünün beşte ya da altıda biri kadar olacak. Ancak bu enerjiyi kullanacak halkın ikna edilmesi şart gözüküyor, zira birkaç sene evvel yapılan kamuoyu araştırması, insanların lazer ve mikrodalga deyince endişe duyduğunu göstermiş bulunuyor.
Japan is developing a giant solar power space generator that it expects to begin transmitting solar energy to earth from an orbit 36,000km above the earth’s within the next 30 years.
The $21bn (£13bn) government-backed project includes plans for the construction of a solar space station comprising four square kilometres of solar panels with a total capacity of 1GW – enough to supply about 294,000 homes in Tokyo, according to a statement posted yesterday on the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry web site.
Over the next four years, the project will focus on developing technology that will send the electricity generated by the orbiting solar panels back to Earth in the form of microwaves.
In 2015, the government plans to launch a small satellite fitted with solar panels, which will be used to test the effectiveness with which the technology can beam electricity from space through the ionosphere – the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere. The station is expected to be fully operational in the 2030s.
“It sounds like a science fiction cartoon, but solar power generation in space may be a significant alternative energy source in the century ahead as fossil fuel disappears,” Kensuke Kanekiyo, managing director of government think-tank Institute of Energy Economics, told the Bloomberg news agency.
The project is being led by the trade ministry and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, with participation by a research group representing 16 businesses. They include Japanese thin-film photovoltaic module producer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, its solar cell and satellite-making sister company Mitsubishi Electric Corp, and Tokyo-based IHI Corp, which produces space development-related equipment.
Transporting panels to the planned solar station will be prohibitively expensive, so Japan needs to find a way to reduce costs to make it commercially viable, Hiroshi Yoshida, chief executive of Excalibur, a Tokyo-based space and defense policy consultancy, told Bloomberg.
“These expenses need to be lowered to a hundredth of current estimates,” he warned.
However, advocates of space solar projects point out that solar energy at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere is estimated to be 10 times greater than on the surface, as there is no atmospheric or cloud interference. Much of the technology required to transmit the energy to Earth is also based on existing satellite systems.
The Japanese project mirrors a similar US initiative that earlier this year saw energy giant PG&E announce that it would purchase power provided by California-based space solar firm Solaren Corp, which is aiming to start beaming solar power from outer space within seven years.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and IHI Corp. will join a ¥2 trillion Japanese project to build a giant solar power generator in space within three decades and beam electricity to Earth.
A research group representing 16 companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., will spend four years developing technology to send electricity without cables in the form of microwaves, according to a statement on the trade ministry’s Web site Tuesday.
“It sounds like a science-fiction cartoon, but solar power generation in space may be a significant alternative energy source in the century ahead as fossil fuel disappears,” said Kensuke Kanekiyo, managing director of the Institute of Energy Economics, a government research body.
Japan is developing the technology for the 1-gigawatt solar station, fitted with 4 sq. km of solar panels, and hopes to have it running in three decades, according to a 15-page background document prepared by the trade ministry in August. Being in space, it will generate power from the sun regardless of weather conditions, unlike Earth-based solar generators, according to the document. One gigawatt is enough to supply about 294,000 average Tokyo homes.
Transporting panels to the solar station 36,000 km above the Earth’s surface will be prohibitively costly, so Japan has to figure out a way to slash expenses to make the solar station commercially viable, said Hiroshi Yoshida, chief executive officer of Excalibur, a Tokyo-based space and defense-policy consulting company.
“These expenses need to be lowered to a hundredth of current estimates,” Yoshida said.
The project to generate electricity in space and transmit it to Earth may cost at least ¥2 trillion, said Koji Umehara, deputy director of space development and utilization at the science ministry. Launching a single rocket costs about ¥10 billion, he said.
“Humankind will some day need this technology, but it will take a long time before we use it,” Yoshida said.
The trade ministry and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which are leading the project, plan to launch a small satellite fitted with solar panels in 2015 and test beaming the electricity from space through the ionosphere, the outermost layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, according to the trade ministry document. The government hopes to have the solar station fully operational in the 2030s, it said.
In the U.S., NASA and the energy department have spent $80 million over three decades in sporadic efforts to study solar generation in space, according to a 2007 report by the U.S. National Security Space Office. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]]