China is will be launching a solar power plant in space for getting inexhaustible power in 2028, two years ahead of the original schedule, a Chinese daily reported.
Earlier, it was supposed to be done by 2030. However, now, it will launch a satellite in 2028 to test wireless power transmission technology from space to the ground from a height of 400km, reported the South China Morning Post quoting the science journal Chinese Space Science and Technology.
“The satellite would convert solar energy to microwaves or lasers”, said the researchers.
The solar power plant will give 10 kilowatts, enough to meet the needs of a few households, the Chinese daily reported.
A 33-acre testing facility is being built in Chongqing’s Bishan district. “The facility will develop space transmission technologies while studying the effect of microwaves beamed back to Earth on living organisms”, said Xie Gengxin, deputy head of the Chongqing Collaborative Innovation Research Institute for Civil-Military Integration in Southwestern China, quoted Forbes.
In the journal, Professor Dong Shiwei with the National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Space Microwaves under the China Academy of Space Technology in Xian noted that the technology could be scaled up significantly and become “an effective contributor to reaching carbon peak and neutrality goals”.
The plan was first drafted in 2014, Dong said, adding that technological advances and potential military applications may have renewed government interest.