PV Gap

Jeanette Said:

Who thinks America and Britain should invest in giant solar power stations with the money it wastes on war..?

We Answered:

Good question. You say 'investing' so looks like you are in the right place!
Probably because govts/companies cannot see good profit in the short/med term. Don't forget no-one cares a fig unless they can see a profit. You get some **** saying use energy-saving bulbs when the street lights glare out everynight. Or don't use plastic carrier bags when all the supermarket produce is highly packaged; I could go on.

Andre Said:

Why no geostationary solar power station?

We Answered:

The amount of solar energy available would be approximately double (geosynchronous satellites only see darkness near the spring and fall equinoxes and clouds would never be in the way). I could build a solar panel with more than double the area on Earth much cheaper than I could launch a geosynchronous satellite, that would need to use some of that solar power just to run equipment inside the satellite.

There's some more practical uses of a space elevator (which you mentioned). There's going to be some huge stresses on whatever material this cable or elevator shaft is constructed of. All orbits are elliptical, and all orbits experience some perturbations due to irregularities in the Earth's shape, the pull of gravity from the Sun & Moon, etc.

In other words, the bottom of the cable will either whip at ridiculously high speeds near the ground or the cable will have to be anchored very firmly to the ground. Currently, there are no materials strong enough to build a cable to a geosynchronous altitude that could withstand the incredible stresses that would be placed on it. Carbon nanotubes could potentially be strong enough to construct a cable, if a method of developing a 22,000 mile long cable of it were developed.

If it were developed and the end of the cable ever came unanchored, we'd get to see some of the most spectacular disaster video ever.

Erica Said:

Solar power?

We Answered:

the first two are VERY easy.

i. 1250 * 2 = 2500 watts = 2.5 KW

ii. 1 KW + 2.5 KW = 3.5 KW

iii on your own for this one.

Alice Said:

Can there be a permanent station to orbit Moon with solar power?

We Answered:

yeah if you build it on the moon youve seen what happened to the russian space station myier

Roland Said:

Would a massive international solar-power station in earth's orbit help reduce global warming?

We Answered:

Sounds like you are on to something here, although with respect to the size of it, and if you are thinking that it will shadow earth to some degree and reduce the direct sunlight upon the earth and create energy at the same time which could be sent to earth by microwave then in theory it would be wonderful, although I believe you would have to design it in such a way, or by using special materials that the solar winds, solar storms, meteorites, and space junk would not destroy it.

Also depending upon the distance you place it from earth, and with respect to the diameter of the object then gravitational attraction will increase so you will have to maintain its orbit using thrusters and Ion pulse would be perfect for such a power plant.

Although the down side is that the further the distance from earth the more massive the object must be to cast the shadow, and the materials involved in such an object would cost trillions upon trillions upon trillions of dollars unless you were capable of making it tissue paper thin.

Additional details

How about producing a vast number of multiple power plants connected to very large solar sheets and pepper them at multiple distances from earth, and multiple distances apart, however between earth and the sun. this would be much more cost affective and would be perfect for filtering out the sunlight, as with respect to us we would not even be capable of observing them, but with respect to the filtration which would be offered it would be most effective.

With respect to the energy created you could send it to any receiver which you wish to send it by microwave.