China Plans to build Solar Space Station

A random space station illustration

China is planning to build a huge Solar Power Station 36,000 kilometers above the ground in an attempt to solve the increasing energy crisis, greenhouse effects and smog problems.

The power station would be a super spacecraft on a geosynchronous orbit equipped with huge solar panels. The electricity generated would be converted to microwaves or lasers and transmitted to a collector on Earth.

According to Wang Xiji, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an International Academy of Astronautics member, the space power station would be really huge, with the total area of the solar panels reaching 5 to 6 sq km. That would be equivalent to 12 of Beijing's Tian'anmen Square, the largest public square in the world, or nearly two New York Central Parks.

The electricity generated from the ground-based solar plants fluctuates with night and day and the weather, but a space generator can collect energy 99 per cent of the time.Also, Space-based solar panels can generate ten times as much electricity as ground-based panels per unit area, says Duan Baoyan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

It's also of great strategic significance as whoever gets hold of the technology first could occupy the future energy market. China plans to build this space station by year 2020.