According to scientists participating in the project, China wants to launch an ambitious space solar power plant programme in 2028. Two years ahead of schedule, the updated plan was published in the journal, Chinese Space Science and Technology.
Previously, the country planned to launch a 1-megawatt solar power station into orbit by 2030. According to the new plan, a satellite will be launched in 2028 to test wireless power transmission technologies from space to the ground at an altitude of 400 kilometres.
The satellite will “convert solar energy to microwaves or lasers and then direct the energy beams to various targets, including fixed locations on Earth and moving satellites” according to the South China Morning Post.
Unlike terrestrial alternative energy sources, orbiting solar power plants would be able to deliver energy at all hours of the day and night on Earth, regardless of the season or weather.
Professor Dong Shiwei of the National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Space Microwave under the China Academy of Space Technology in Xian said that the technology could be scaled up significantly and become “an effective contributor to reaching carbon peak and neutrality goals.”
The proposal calls for the construction of a massive orbiting solar power space station in four stages.
China would deploy a powerful plant to a geosynchronous orbit of 36,000 km two years after the first test launch, in 2030. By 2035, the larger power plant would be able to distribute 10 megawatts to “select military and civilian users,” while the test station would have a 10-kilowatt power output. By 2050, technology would have progressed sufficiently – and the station would be large enough – to allow for a power output of around two gigawatts, roughly similar to the output of most of the UK’s terrestrial power reactors.
This would indicate that the outposts could be profitable.
According to reports, the US military has tested similar technology on the X-37B space plane and proposed a $100 million experiment to power up a remote military base as early as 2025.
NASA also had suggested a comparable energy project more than two decades ago, but it was never implemented, whereas the UK government commissioned independent studies to justify a £16 billion British counterpart in orbit by 2035.
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