China plans to take renewable energy and solar power to a whole new level by planning to build the first ever solar power station up in space.

China’s Academy of Space Technology has revealed plans to build a solar power plant in space that would orbit the Earth at 36,000km and capture solar energy and beam it back to Earth.

Since its photovoltaic array would be floating high above any terrestrial weather, the plant would be able to harness solar power even when it is cloudy on Earth.

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According to The Sydney Morning Herald, in order to send energy down back to Earth, the current plan is to have solar arrays in space capture light from the sun and then beam electricity down to a facility on Earth in the form of a microwave or a laser. From there, the electricity could be used simply as if it has been generated by the usual, terrestrial means.

Moreover, apart from sending clean energy to Earth, the power plant could also possibly power missions deeper and farther into space, as long as the beam is accurate enough to target any space ships that are rocketing away to explore the cosmos, reported Futurism.



A researcher from the China Academy of Space Technology Corporation, Pang Zhihao, expressed that a space solar power station held the promise of providing ‘an inexhaustible source of clean energy for humans’.

The construction of an early experimental space solar power plant has already begun with plans to launch a test facility before 2025, and if the launch and the energy-transmitting beam work as planned, the Chinese scientists have plans to test and launch even bigger and more powerful facilities through 2050.