China seems to be building space solar power stations to chase the sun

Key words:Solar Station.Solar Inverter.Power Inverter

China's efforts to build solar power plants in space have reached a milestone, converting sunlight from outer space into power supplies to drive satellites into orbit or transmit power back to Earth.

A research team at Xidian University has completed the world's first full-chain, full-system ground verification of space solar power stations, demonstrating a number of key technologies for future projects.

The Space Solar Power Station (SSPS) is a hot-spot technology, a space-based power generation system used to collect solar energy, then convert it into electricity, and then convert it into microwaves.The sunlight outside the atmosphere is brighter and shines almost all day.

Next, the energy in the microwave will be transmitted to and collected by a receiving antenna on space or on the Earth's surface, thus converting the microwave back to electricity.

In addition, engineers at the China Academy of Space Technology, a Chinese state-owned spacecraft manufacturer, revealed the blueprint for promoting the pioneering technology in a study published earlier this month in the journal China Space Science and Technology.

According to its plan, space high-pressure transmission and radio power transmission experiments are expected to be conducted in low Earth orbit in 2028.

The satellite will be able to generate 10 kilowatts of electricity and carry a quarter of solar cell arrays, microwave emission antennas, low-power laser emission payloads and a few meters long to test the power transmission across distances of 400 kilometers from orbit.

By 2030, they plan to expand the solar array to more than 100 kilowatts and test medium-power laser transmission over a distance of 36,000 km.

By 2035, the microwave transmitting antenna is expected to expand to about 100 meters and generate 10 megawatts of electricity.By 2050, the goal is to build a commercially operational solar power plant that can generate 2 gigawatts of electricity, and will be equipped with about a kilometer-long antenna and a complex array of solar cells assembled in space.

"Heaven and earth transmission is our ultimate goal, and it takes years of work," Duan said."But we can achieve some near-term goals."

Solar energy in space can first be used to charge small and medium-sized satellites, Duan said."Now, they have to launch with huge solar panel payloads that can't collect power in shaded areas when orbiting the Earth."

In the near future, the satellites are expected to be equipped with foldable receiving antennas, while getting rid of the solar panels, Duan said.