solar-power

Solar Power Projects Should Meet Energy Needs and Protect the Earth's Fragile Biosphere

With more than a few billion people inhabiting the earth the need to find enough power to meet the changing and growing needs of this huge population calls for some very serious effort. With more and more emphasis being placed on the Western model of living it is not surprising that energy needs are not only required in greater numbers, but it is also depleting the already limited resources available to man.

Space - The Final Frontier May Hold the Answer for Future Needs

Space solar power projects may be the answer to providing humanity with energy that at the moment is in abundance in space. What will happen in the distant future is anybody's guess, but it does present an environmentally friendly and economical energy resource at the moment. It should also give occasion to promote better technologies and will certainly further the prospects of future space settlement by humans.

The space solar power project is not such a novel idea as it has been studied from as far back as 1881 when the Nikola Test attempted to show that long-distance wireless power transmission over the earth's surface was indeed feasible. Given the fact that space abounds with energy, it is only a question of time and considerable concerted effort before space solar power projects become reality.

The fundamental principal driving space solar power projects would involve satellites positioned in geosynchronous orbit that could collect the sun's energy and convert it into radio waves that could be beamed to an earth based receiving site. On the ground, an antenna could then convert the radio waves back into electricity to power our energy needs.

At present, such concepts in space solar power projects are being aired and the aim is to reach out to the environmental community to disseminate information on space solar power projects and provide an opportunity to discuss its various pros and cons. It should certainly throw up many interesting proposals that would allow mankind to find an alternate as well as abundant energy source to meet the present needs as well as those of the future.

On the ground, at present, the U.S. Department of Energy has a Million Solar Roofs Initiative that is ambitious as also feasible that should meet America's long term energy needs, and it is proposed that solar energy systems to the tune of one million should be installed in buildings across the United States by the end of this decade.

There is thus reason to be optimistic about future solar power projects being able to cope with energy requirements, and with space based projects, they should also help to preserve the earth's fragile biosphere.