Space-based solar power seems like an idea from a Star Trek script, but given the uncertain

future of its power generation industry, Japan stands to gain as much as anyone by exploring
this potential source of renewable energy. The disaster at Fukushima, limited access to fossil
fuels and advances in technology has, at least in the eyes of the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA), added further weight to the notion of a space-based solar power system. The
agency is developing a complex roadmap involving a 1 GW extraterrestrial solar farm, a
microwave beam and a man-made island in the Tokyo harbor which could be used collect solar
energy in space and supply power to Earth by 2040.

Thinking outside the square

It was just over 40 years ago that the concept of a solar power satellite (SPS)
first emerged. American scientist and aerospace engineer Dr. Peter Glaser
won a patent for a broadcast system using a one-square kilometer antenna
to channel power via microwaves to a receiver on the ground. The advantage
of such a system, and space-based solar power in general, is that it
harnesses the unobstructed output of the sun, unlike land-based solar
systems which are affected by the weather and Earth's day/night cycle.
While Glaser's proposal never got off the ground, it did inspire further
investigation of the potential of space-based solar power by various
government departments and institutions. In 2008, a company called Space
Energy conducted a long-range wireless power transmission test using a
microwave beam between two Hawaiian islands, a distance of 148 km (91.96
mi). The result was a power yield of 1/1000th of one percent on the receiving
end, raising questions over whether the technique could be employed over
the much larger distance between a satellite in geosynchronous Earth orbit
(GEO) and a ground station.
Writing in IEEE Spectrum last week, Professor Emeritus at JAXA, Susumi
Sasaki, argues that this experiment failed largely due to the dense
atmosphere disturbing the microwaves' phases as a result of the horizontal
transmission. In detailing the agency's proposal he emphasized that in a
space-based system the microwaves only need to pass through this dense
atmosphere for the last few kilometers of their journey. This, along with new
designs for the solar power satellites and anticipated advances in technology
over the coming decades, gives JAXA confidence that it can eventually
achieve an effective wireless transmission of solar energy over the necessary
36,000 km (22,500 miles) from GEO.

The JAXA approach

JAXA is working on two concepts. The simpler one involves a huge square
panel that measures 2 km (1.24 mi) per side. The top surface would be
covered with photovoltaic elements, with transmission antennas on the
bottom side. A small bus housing controls and communication systems would
be tethered to the panel via 10 km (6.2 mi) long wires. A limitation with this
design is that the orientation of the panel is fixed, meaning that as the Earth
and the satellite spin, the amount of sunlight the panel receives will vary,
impacting its ability to generate power.

The more complex solution seeks to address this problem by positioning two
huge mirrors alongside two photovoltaic panels. These mirrors would reflect
sunlight onto the panels 24 hours a day and would be free-flying, meaning
that they are not tied to the panel nor the transmission unit. While the
technology that enables formation flying in space continues to develop,
Sasaki says considerable advances would need to be made to coordinate
formation flying with kilometer-long structures. Other challenges in building
this type of SPS include developing light materials for the mirror and highvoltage power cables to transmit the power from the two solar panels to the
unit, technologies that Sasaki says are still years away.

Generating solar power in space is one thing ...

The mirror-based system would require more than 100 million 10-watt
semiconductor amplifiers and be capable of producing 1 GW of power,
according to Sasaki. Transmitting this power back to Earth is where the
proposal gets tricky. And more speculative. JAXA has earmarked 5.8 GHz as
an appropriate frequency for transmission, claiming that it would allow
effective penetration of the atmosphere without the need for exceedingly
large transmitting antennas. There would however, need to be a huge
number of antennas more than one billion in fact. They would also need to
form a single focused beam, meaning their phases must be synchronized, a
process made more difficult by the fact that the panels move in relation to
one another.
This is a problem that has not been solved with current technologies. JAXA
hopes to overcome it with a so-called retrodirective system. This involves
sending a pilot signal from a rectifying antenna, or rectenna, on the ground
to the antennas on the satellite. As each antenna receives the pilot signal, it
would calculate the necessary phases for its microwaves and adjust to form a
solid beam back to the rectenna on the ground. A rectenna array would be
located on a man-made island in the Tokyo harbor and measure 3 km (1.86
miles) in diameter, a size that JAXA says would require limiting the
divergence of the beam to 100 microradians. From there, the array of
rectennas would convert the microwave power to DC power at an efficiency
of more than 80 percent, with the DC power then converted to AC and
directed into the grid.
The microwave beam itself would have a power density of one kilowatt per
square meter. With the typical regulatory limit for human exposure to
microwave radiation set at 10 watts per square meter, such a beam would
come with its own set of problems. Sasaki says that the site of the rectenna,
an area of around 2 km (1.24 miles) in diameter, would need to be restricted
and the staff would require protective clothing, but it is unclear what
safeguards would be implemented to prevent such a powerful instrument
being misdirected or falling into the wrong hands ... say, someone with a
hairless cat and penchant for world domination.

What's next?

JAXA is planning to conduct tests by the end of this year demonstrating its
retrodirective beam control system. In 2018 it hopes to perform the first
microwave power transmission in space, channeling several kilowatts from
low Earth orbit to the ground while ensuring that the microwave beam
doesn't interfere with existing communications infrastructure. Following
these initial steps, JAXA is aiming to commence a 100 kW SPS demonstration
in 2020, whereby engineers could verify the technologies required to scale
up the system. From here, it claims an international consortium involving
experts from around the globe would be required to construct a 1 GW
commercial SPS throughout the 2030s.
With a finite supply of fossil fuels and increasing pressure to shift to clean,
renewable energy, a constant stream of power drawn from an unlimited
source could have environmental and economic impacts across the globe.
While it's a concept that seems out of this world in more ways than one, and
a 1 GW solar farm would hardly register a blip on Japan's energy
consumption radar, demonstrating progress toward a functioning SPS could
constitute an effective proof-of-concept and garner further private and public
sector interest in space-based solar.
Sources: IEEE Spectrum, JAXA

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