Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sahara solar plan
Solar power ventures are heating up in Japan and Europe where initiatives seek to harness the power of the sun from space and in the Sahara desert. Officials with Japan’s space agency believe they can collect solar power from earth’s orbit and beam it back down by 2030. The government has awarded contracts to a group of companies to develop the Space Solar Power System consisting of huge solar panels that would hover in space.
Meanwhile, the Desertec Industrial Initiative hopes to supply Europe with 15% of its energy supply by 2050 through the building of solar farms and transmission networks in North Africa and the Middle East. The effort involves a dozen European businesses, including Deutsche Bank, Siemens and energy provider E.On, and is expected to cost around $400 billion. It hopes to begin producing solar energy by 2015.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Japan Aims to Build Solar Power Station in Space by 2030 (Agence France-Presse)
Farming Solar Energy in Space (by Tim Hornyak, Scientific American)
Sahara Sun 'to Help Power Europe' (BBC News)
Sahara Solar-Power Consortium's Plans Advance (by Ulrike Dauer, Wall Street Journal)
Space Solar Power (National Space Society)
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