Will China build a solar power station in space?

(Xidian University/Handout via Xinhua) BEIJING, June 22 (Xinhua) -- China has made a milestone advance in its effort to build a solar power station in space to convert the sunlight in outer space into an electrical supply to drive the satellites in orbits or transmit power back to the Earth.

Does China have a space solar power initiative?

In 2015, Northrop Grumman Corporation in the U.S. sponsored a $17.5 million research over three years for the development of the Space Solar Power Initiative (SSPI). Duan proposed in late 2013 to kick off China's own initiative and then his team put forward China's tech approach of SSPS called OMEGA.

How big will China's future space power station be?

According to Li, the future space power station will likely have a scale of more than 10,000 tons, and to reach that goal, China needs to grasp the capability of wireless power transmission technology, which is a must and the greatest challenge in the process.

What is a space solar power station?

A space solar power station, though seemingly belonging in the realm of science fiction, refers to the technology to generate electricity from solar energy and then transmit it wirelessly to another target in space or users on the Earth's surface.

Can space-based solar power be generated?

"As a key step to verifying the feasibility of space-based solar power generation, we want to make and place into orbit a pair of satellites — a large one that will collect solar power and convert it to microwaves and laser beams, and a smaller one responsible for receiving laser beams.

Will a space solar power station be operational in the future?

In the future, we are looking at building a space solar power station, which according to the current plan, will possess power capability of 1 billion watts - or the gigawatt level, and the mega project will be operational for commercial use," Li Ming, director of the commission, revealed at a professional forum on Sunday.