LONGi Green Energy, the world’s largest solar firm, plans to launch solar panels into space to see if they can function in the orbit and provide electricity back to Earth.
The ‘LONGi Green Energy Future Energy Space Laboratory’ is the recently announced initiative of the Xi’an, China-based solar powerhouse. Its mission is to “promote the integrated development of aerospace technology and new energy.” The firm will also test its goods in Earth-like settings to see whether they are suited for space travel.
Bloomberg claims that Longi Green’s strategy is succeeding because of its simple business model, which is that it can generate power from solar energy at any time of the day.
Wu Zhijian, head of the China Space Foundation, a government-supported organization affiliated with the China National Space Administration, stated:
“The earliest applications of photovoltaics were in the aerospace field. The development of photovoltaics and aerospace are inseparable. Photovoltaics have always been the main producer of space power. I am very happy to see LONGi taking the first step in aerospace and connecting In the future space power station, aerospace commercialization, and other fields.”
“I also look forward to LONGi and China’s photovoltaic enterprises speeding up their pace and moving forward hand in hand with China Aerospace,” he added.
In June, Chinese scientists at Xidian University in Shaanxi province revealed that they had successfully tested a full-system model capable of wirelessly transmitting solar electricity from space to Earth.
According to Bloomberg, it collects sunlight well above the Earth and turns it into microwave beams. It then communicates across the air to a ground receiving station, which is transformed back to electricity.
While the model only transfers the electricity 55 metres through the air, the researchers want to develop the technique to send power from circling solar panels to Earth one day.
