Closer to the Sun: Satellite Solar is Out of This World
This is a notch up from high-altitude wind turbines.
It’s another type of space race, to be the first company to get solar satellites into orbit.
U.S. companies are aggressively researching the technology, reports Yale 360. One firm called PowerSat in Washington state has filed for patents to link as many 300 shiny satellites together in space, beam the energy to one big satellite, then transmit the power back to Earth.
The star trek also includes using solar-powered thrusters to launch satellites into orbit 22,000 miles above our planet.
A California utility called PG&E also has signed a deal with Solaren for 200 megawatts of space-based solar power in 2016, according to The Wall Street Journal.
