SOLAR POWER SATELLITE

K.Sushmitha P.Prathibha Sravanthi

II year EEE II year EEE
KSRM COLLLGE OF ENGG KSRM COLLLGE OF ENGG
Id no: 305376 Id no: 305348
Email:sushmitha.summi@gmail.com Email:prathibha.sravanthi@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Energy development is the on
going effort to provide abundant and
accessible energy, through
knowledge, skills and constructions.
For years humanity has dreamed of a
clean, inexhaustible energy source.
This dream has lead many people to
do what, in retrospect, seems
obvious, and look upward toward
nature's "fusion reactor", the sun. The
sun powers the biosphere, which is to
say that the energy used by almost all
plants and animals comes from the
sun. So why not use solar energy to
power industry, transportation, and
the home as well? Promoted as early
as 1968 by Peter Glaser, then a
NASA scientist, solar power satellites
can be built to convert direct solar
radiation received in the full,
unobstructed intensity possible in
space to direct current (DC),
electrical power. Such collectors are
known as solar power satellites
(SPS). The solar energy collected by
an SPS would be converted into
electricity, then into microwaves. The
microwaves would be beamed to the
Earth's surface, where they would be
received and converted back into
electricity by a large array of devices
known as a rectifying antenna, or
retina.
Introduction
Can you ever imagine life without
lights, fans, cars, computers and
television or of fetching water from
the well and river? This is what life
would have been like had man not
discovered the uses of energy both
renewable and nonrenewable
resources. Nonrenewable resources
are of different types for e.g. solar
energy, wind energy, tidal energy,
geothermal energy etc. Now let us
focus on solar energy as it is one of the
abundant forms of energy available.
Power
"For the successful technology, reality
must take precedence over public
relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
Richard Feyman Energy. It has been
already said that the rationale for going
into space, apart from the fact that the
human race must extend its limits and
explore and then conquer space, has to
do with retrieving energy, mainly the
Sun's energy. About 80 % of the total
energy demanded by our society is
supplied from fossil fuels. 90% of the
CO2 which is the major cause of the
greenhouse effect comes from
combustion. It is now widely accepted
that the only way to reduce the
environmental risks while sustaining
the economic growth is to develop a
large-scale alternative energy system
which is ecologically benign.
A scientific venture must be
pursued when it follows certain logic
and the solution is correct, even if
technology for proper utilization is not
current or not available. Such is this
case. Although the human race would
perhaps not be able in the very
immediate future to exploit the
untapped potential of solar energy, it is
certainly a direction that must be
followed. Exclusive dependence on
fossil fuels will inevitably lead to
energy shortages. (see Introduction)
It must be remembered that this
scheme was one of the main
determinants in choosing the location
of the space colony. The liberation
points along the Earth's path were
chosen primarily for their constant
exposure to sunshine Solar Energy
here on Earth Why should we go into
space to get solar energy and not
profit directly from it here on Earth?
The answer is twofold
Solar Power Satellites
A possible scheme for
producing power on a large scale
contemplates placing giant solar
modules alongside the colony where
energy generated from sunlight
would be converted to microwaves
and beamed to antennas on earth for
recon version to electric power. On
ground, the microwave power is
rectified and converted to the
commercial electric power.
To produce as much power as
five large nuclear power plants (1
billion watts each) several square km
of solar collectors, weighing more
than 5 million kg would have to be
assembled in the settlement. An
earth-based antenna 5 miles in
diameter would be required for
reception. These vast assemblies are
often referred to as Solar Power
Satellites (SPS) .The concept of the
SPS is revolutionary with a high
potentiality to solve the global
environmental problems, as it uses
the limitless solar energy, it utilizes
the space outside of the earth ecology
system, and it has no by-product
waste. The use of Even though one of
its panels could never be deployed,
Skylab effectively demonstrated solar
energy.
A large-scale receiving antenna, retina,
is necessary to collect the microwave
power from space.
The Atmosphere :
The benign atmosphere protects us from
the intensity of the sun's rays, that are
filtered by our gaseous cover. That same
protective effect which shields us and
allows life on Earth also prevent us from
fully receiving the Sun's energy. It is
estimated that, in average, between 0.1 and
0.2 kW/m2 of solar energy can be received
from the Sun on the Earth's surface. In
near Earth space the quantity o energy that
can be collected is approximately ten
times as much, that is, around 1 to 2
kW/m2 in average. This first reason is
obviously decisive.
The Earth's rotation : But even if
extra sensitive solar panels could be
engineered, there is another
problematic factor that complicates full
utilization of the sun's energy. The
rotation of the Earth, as we very well
know, gives rise to days and nights,
which means that during 12 hours in
average no sunlight hits the surface of
our planet. Because of this, solar
energy devices have to trap the heat
during the night period and great pains
are taken to ensure that minimum heat
gets lost. None of these problems will
be met in space, where sunshine is
constant and with far greater intensity.
Generating electricity
Apart from using the sun's energy to
supply the Earth, the colonists would
benefit from the abundance of energy
for their own home processes.
Solar energy can be directly converted
into electricity by means of
photoelectric cells. These cells
produce an electrical voltage as long
as light shines on them .

The photoelectric effect consists in

the formation and liberation of
electrically charged particles in
matter when it is irradiated by light or
other electromagnetic radiation. The
term photoelectric effect designates
several types of related interactions.
In the external photoelectric effect,
electrons are liberated from the A satellite with solar panels to
surface of a metallic conductor by convert light energy into electricity can
absorbing energy from light shining be put into orbit. Indeed, most satellites
on the metal's surface. The effect is in orbit today are powered by solar
applied in the photoelectric cell, in panels. But how can we get the energy
which the electrons liberated from from the satellite back to earth? Clearly
one pole of the cell, the it would be impossible to use the
photocathode; migrate to the other electric lines we use for long-distance
pole, the anode, under the influence power transmission on earth. This is
of an electric field. where microwaves come in. The idea is
that a satellite be equipped with a
Solar power satellite concept microwave generator, so that the
electrical energy from the solar panels
The sun powers the biosphere, can be converted into a microwave
which is to say that the energy used beam. Then the microwave beam can
by almost all plants and animals be directed to antennas on the surface
comes from the sun. So why not use of the earth, which would convert the
solar energy to power industry, microwaves back to electrical energy.
transportation, and the home as well? The energy could then either be used at
Well, a principal difficulty with solar the site of the antenna or injected into
power is that the sun doesn't always the electric-power network.
shine on a particular location: half the
time the earth blocks the sun, and for
much of the remaining time clouds
and fog do. But what if the solar
energy were collected by a set of
satellites above the earth’s
atmosphere? Then we might obtain
solar power for 24 hours every day of
the year. This is the idea behind
solar-power satellites.
It was during the late 1960s that the
engineer Peter Glaser first had the
notion of solar power satellites. The
principle of transmitting power by
microwaves had already been
demonstrated, though not put into
practice. (Microwaves in practical
devices, such as radar systems and
long-distance telephone relays, were
used to convey information.)
To convey information, the intensity
of the received signal need only be
less than one nanowatt (one billionth
of a watt). Glaser’s idea was to put
the solar-power satellites in
geosynchronous orbits, so that each
would hover over a single location on
the earth. This meant, however, that for a very long time. There are also
the satellites had to be very high other concerns. One is that the
(36,000 kilometers or about 22,000
transmission down to the ground might
feet), and this in turn meant that the be interrupted by clouds and weather.
antenna on the satellite and the
Another is the safety of the people and
receiving antenna on the ground had animals near the receiving antennas
to be extremely large (a kilometer or who might be exposed to the
more in diameter). The idea did not microwave radiation. Today, the
seem practical, and after some initial viability of solar-power satellites as a
funding by the U.S Department of long-term solution to our energy needs
Energy and NASA there was little is being investigated by government
interest in pursuing the technology. agencies and individual companies in
Today, however, the situation many countries.
is changed because of the very large
Current Solar Power Satellite
number of Communications satellites
in low orbits. It might be possible to Designs
make these satellites dual purpose— Solar satellites of various shapes
solar-energy collectors as well as and sizes have been designed by
communications devices. Because of NASA, aerospace firms and
the much lower orbits, the antennas independent engineers since the 1960s.
on the satellites and on the ground They range in size from a hundred
need not be nearly so large. A meters to more than five kilometers in
drawback however, is that satellites diameter. Their basic components are
in low-earth orbit circle the earth (1.) solar cells to convert sunlight into
rapidly (about every 90 minutes) and electricity, (2.) a framework to hold the
therefore do not provide a connection
cells and their support equipment,
(3.) devices which will convert the
electricity into radio waves or laser
beams able to safely send the power
down to Earth, and (4.) receiving
antennas on Earth to convert the
beams back into electricity and feed it
into standard power gridsv
One solar satellite variation generates
electricity from an orbiting, high-tech
boiler and turbine system.
Huge reflectors concentrate sunlight
on the boiler, and lasers or radio
waves would transmit the energy to
receiving antennas on Earth.
Solar satellites will orbit 22,300 miles
above the Earth, in the same orbit
used by today’s communications
satellites. At that height it takes 24
hours for an object to circle the
planet, so from the Earth’s surface
the com satellites (or solar satellites)
appear to stay directly overhead all
day and night. They never pass into the
Earth’s shadow. That’s important to
solar powered communications
satellites, and even more important to
solar satellites. This orbit will allow
solar satellites to send their electricity
down to a specific spot on Earth 24
hours a day for decades at a time.
Most of the components for
these designs already exist, having
been in production on other
commercial projects for decades. Also,
plants and animals have been grown
under the weak beams these solar
satellites will produce, with no physical
damage. Environmental protection is
not an issue, as we will explain later.
The reason solar satellites haven’t been
deployed isn’t a technology issue; its
economics.
POWER GENERATION AND
POWER LINE
Solar Cell: The following baseline data
used for Solar Cell Unit
is based on the current performance of
ground-use a-Si solar
cells and their possible evolution in the
near future. Further
detail of solar cells under test will be
presented.
Conversion Efficiency 15 %
Unit Weight 0.22 Kg/m2
Specific Power 950 Watt/kg
Thickness 0.2 mm
Array Module: A subarray is composed
of 12 solar cell units.
The array module, composed of 110
subarrays, is a mechanical
element for assembly. Each array
module generates 180A at 1
kV. The weight of the array module is
270 kg per each module.
Forty-five array modules are
assembled in each wing; northeast,
southeast, northwest, and southwest.
Power Collection and Distribution:
The Wing Summing Bus collects the
electric power from the array
modules.
Each bus line has hot and return bus
cables. The bus lines are
insulated copper plates 1 mm thick.
They get wider as they approach the
center of the SPS2000 satellite to
keep the joule loss per surface area
constant. The Wing Summing Bus
Lines are connected to the Central
Bus Lines (322), which are interfaced
with the spacetenna system. The
Central Bus Lines are insulated
copper plates 0.7 mm thick by 100
mm wide. The Bus Lines are
mechanically attached to the truss
pipes using insulated adapters. The
power loss in the bus lines is 7 % in
total. The total weight of the power
lines is approximately 11,000 kg.
Power Transmission System
Power transmission from the satellite
to a rectenna is made by 2.45 GHz
microwave beam emitted from the
spacetenna, the antenna onboard the
satellite, provided with retro directive
beam control capability. Using the
principle similar to that of the U.S.
Reference System, electrical and
mechanical design of this system is
simpler by employing a square shape
and a single power level. Detailed
design of the spacetenna will be
shown. This makes the microwave
beam broad, and results in relatively
inefficient power transmission and an
increase in microwave exposure
outside the rectennas. However in
this case, the microwave power level is
much lower than in the case of the
Reference System, and well below
international safety standards.
The beaming angle as large as 60
degrees of this case makes this
requirement more important than in the
case of the Reference System.
Spacetenna Design: Antenna
characteristics are shown by
Table 2.
Table 2: Spacetenna Characteristics
Electrical Characteristics
Frequency 2.45GHz
Beam control Retrodirective
Beam scanning
angle
+30 degrees (east-west)
+16.7 degrees (north-south)
Power distribution constant
Power density 574W/m2
Max. power density
on ground
0.9mW/cm2
Input power to
spacetenna
16 MW
Transmitting power 10 MW
Mechanical Characteristics
Shape and Dimension 132m x 132m
square
Mass 134.4 ton
Number of Array module 88
Number of subarray 1936
Number of antenna elements 2,547,776
units
Number of pilot receiver 7,744 units
Rectenna and Electricity Supply
“An antenna comprising a mesh of
dipoles and diodes for
absorbing microwave energy from a
transmitter and
converting it into electric power.”
Microwaves are
received with about 85% efficiency
Around 5km across (3.1 miles).
nuclear. The rectennas will be huge,
but the land underneath need not go
waste. Since the array absorbs the
microwaves, but allows sunlight and
rainfall through, the land could be
used for farming or ranching. Or, as
in this case, the rectenna could be
built as a vast set of greenhouses,
feeding millions. Rectenna
Technology: For SPS2000 two basic
rectenna designs have been
considered to date, the high-
efficiency "wire mesh reflector"
supported on a rigid frame above the
ground, and the low-cost "magic
carpet" which could be pegged to the
ground. Power collection,
conditioning and energy storage will
be provided according to customers'
requirement. Rectenna system:
SPS2000 rectenna systems may be
developed for different purposes,
such as a small-scale, low-cost system;
a full-size maximum-output system; a
system intended to be developed later
into a commercial system. At least one
SPS2000
rectenna site will be used as an SPS
operation research center. Rectennas
may deliver power into an existing
grid, or operate independently.
Rectenna site conditions: To deliver
power for the maximum length of time,
rectennas will be at least 1200 km
apart.
Rectenna construction and operation
will have environmental
and economic impacts, which will need
to be analyzed for each site
Magic carpet
Material pegged to the ground
5,000 MW Receiving Station
(Rectenna). This station is about a
mile and a half long. Launch costs
Without a doubt, the biggest problem
for the SPS concept is the currently
immense cost of all space launches.
Current rates on the Space Shuttle run
between $3,500 and $5,000 per pound
($8,000/kg and $11,000/kg), depending
on whose numbers are used. In either
case the concept of building a structure
some kilometers on a side is clearly out
of the question. Development of a
vehicle that can launch 100-ton loads at
less than $400/kg is likely to be
necessary.
Gerard O'Neill noted this problem in
the early 1970s, and came up with the
idea of building the SPS's in orbit
with materials from the Moon. The
costs of launch from the Moon are
about 100 times lower than from
Earth, due to the lower gravity.
However this concept only works if
the number of satellites to be built is
on the order of several hundred,
otherwise the cost of setting up the
producti
Solar Satellite Power Costs
on lines
Earth-built components for a single
in space
solar satellite will weigh from several
and
thousand tons to several hundred
mining
thousand tons, depending on the design
facilities
and power output needed. The largest
on the
versions could supply power to an
Moon
entire city, state or provine while the
are just
smaller versions could supply
as huge
individual factories with heavy
as
electrical needs, like aluminum
launching from Earth in the first
smelters. Communications satellites
place. However it appears that
weigh from a few hundred pounds to
O'Neill was more interested in
over ten tons. Launching them on
coming up with a justification for his
today’s unmanned rockets costs from
space habitat designs than any
$3,000 to $5,000 per pound (of
particular interest in the SPS concept
satellite). Manned launches cost ten
on its own.
times as much. Several start-up launch
More recently the SPS concept has
companies hope to drop the unmanned
been suggested as a use for a space
launch cost to $1,000 per pound during
elevator. The elevator would make
this decade, but that’s not nearly low
construction of an SPS considerably
enough
less expensive,
possibly making them competitive The cost of electricity in the U.S. varies
from region to region, depending on
with conventional sources. However
how it’s produced. Hydropower from
it appears unlikely that even recent
dams is commonly the cheapest and
advances in materials science,
namely carbon nanotube, can reduce
the price of construction of the
elevator enough in the short term.
nuclear is often the most expensive.
The cost at the point of generation
ranges from 4 cents to about 10 cents
per kilowatt hour, which includes a
profit of less than one cent per
kilowatt hour. A few more cents are
added to cover various taxes and the
cost of transporting it over power
lines to where it’s needed. The cost
of fuel for all other Earth-based
power plants fluctuates widely over
the 30-40 year life of the plant. It can
often exceed construction costs, and
the suspected environmental damage
from carbon-based fuels is well
known. Nuclear fuel causes less
direct damage, but has higher
environmental risks. Disposal costs
of depleted nuclear fuel and the costs
of tearing down old nuclear plants are
extremely high.
The cost of fuel for all other
Earth-based power plants fluctuates
widely over the 30-40 year life of the
plant. It can often exceed
construction costs, and the suspected
environmental damage from carbon-
based fuels is well known. Nuclear
fuel causes less direct damage, but
has higher environmental risks.
Disposal costs of depleted nuclear
fuel and the costs of tearing down old
nuclear plants are extremely high.
An average U.S. home or apartment
uses about 1,000-2,000 kilowatt hours
a month, and a city of 250,000 with
factories, stores, homes and streetlights
might need as much as a billion
kilowatt hours a month. Proposed solar
satellites will generate from a few
million to a few billion kilowatts each,
depending on their size.
Solar satellites will generate about one
kilowatt hour of electricity for each
kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the satellite’s
weight. A lot of this weight will be low
cost frames, but a lot will also be
higher cost solar cells, electronics and
guidance systems. If solar satellite
components cost an average of $100
per pound to manufacture and
(optimistically) $1000 per pound to
carry to orbit, they’d have to sell their
power for 30-50 cents per kilowatt
hour to pay off these costs in 30 years.
That doesn’t include the cost of
launching the assembly and
maintenance crews into space at much
higher rates, and launching and
operating the living quarters for these
crews. Even if solar satellite assembly
robots were used, you’d need people in
orbit to maintain, repair and refuel the
robots. The launch costs and
maintenance costs for these crews
could add another $200 per pound to
solar satellite costs over a 30-year
period.
Several innovative designs have been
proposed which unfurl sheets of solar
cells like umbrellas after they’re
launched, then allow them to
automatically connect themselves piece
by piece into huge structures in orbit.
These designs will reduce - but
certainly not eliminate - the solar
satellite manpower needs. Some 20%
of communications satellites fail in
orbit because of electrical problems,
fuel shortages or because their solar
panels fail to open as planned, even
though this industry has 40 years of
experience behind it.
The “Space Island Space Hardware”
section below will explain how we’ll
make it possible for solar satellites to
be launched, assembled and operated
cheaply enough to profitably sell
their power for ten cents per
kilowatt-hour.
shape of the satellite looks like a
saddle back roof. The roof is formed by
solar panels and the spacetenna is built
on the bottom plane to transmit
microwaves to the ground. Of an SPS
is 20 years and it delivers 5 giga watts
to the grid, the Commercial value of
that power is 5,000,000,000 / 1000 =
5,000,000 kilowatt hours, which
multiplied by $.05 per kWh gives
$250,000 revenue per hour. $250,000 ×
24 hours × 365 days × 20 years =
$43,800,000,000.
In order to be competitive, the SPS
must surmount some
extremely formidable barriers. Either it
must cost far less to deploy, or it must
operate for a very long period of time.
Many proponents have suggested that
the lifetime is effectively infinite, but
normal maintenance and replacement
due to meteorite impacts makes this
unlikely. A potentially useful concept
to contrast SPS with is the constructing
a ground-based solar power system that
generates an equivalent amount of
power. Such a system would require a
large solar array built in a well-sunlit
area, the Sahara Desert for instance.
However, an SPS also requires a large
ground structure -- the rectenna on the
ground is much larger than the area of
the solar panels in space. The ground-
only solar array would have
Unit Weight 0.22 Kg/m2

+16.7 degrees (north-south)
Power distribution constant Power
density 574W/m2 Max. power
density on ground 0.9mW/cm2
Input power to space antenna
16 MW
Transmitting power 10 MW
Mechanical Characteristics
Shape and Dimension 132m x 132m
square
Mass 134.4 ton
Number of Array module 88
Number of subarray 1936
Number of antenna elements
2,547,776 units
Number of pilot receiver 7,744 units
Rectenna and Electricity Supply
“An antenna comprising a mesh of
dipoles and diodes for absorbing
microwave energy from a transmitter
and converting it into electric power.”
Microwaves are received with about
85% efficiency Around 5km across
(3.1 miles).The advantages of costing
considerably less to construct, and
would require no significant
technological advances. However,
such a system has a number of
significant disadvantages as well. Night
time at a terrestrial solar
The World's First Prototype Solar
Power Satellite
Station reduces the average amount of
electricity produced by more than 50%,
since no power at all is generated
during the night and the Sun's angle is
low in the sky during much of the day.
Some form of energy storage would be
required continue providing power
through the night, such as pumped
storage hydroelectricity. This is both
expensive and inefficient. Weather
conditions would also interfere greatly
with power collection, and could prove
to cause much greater wear and tear on
the solar collectors than the
environment of Earth orbit;
Asandstorm could cause devastating
damage, for example Beamed
microwave power allows one to send
the power to where it is needed, while a
solar generating station in the Sahara
would primarily provide power to the
surrounding area where there is not
significant demand (Alternately, the
power could be used on-site to produce
chemical fuels for transportation and
storage). Many advances in
construction techniques that make the
SPS concept more economical could
make a groundbased system more
economical as well. For instance,
many of the SPS plans are based on
building the framework with automated
machinery supplied with raw materials,
typically aluminum. Such a system
could just as easily be used on Earth,
no shipping required.
However, it should be noted that Earth-
based construction already has access
to extremely cheap human labor that
would not be available in space, so
such construction techniques would
have to be extremely competitive.
Current work
NASDA (Japan's national space
agency) has been researching in this
area steadily for the last few years. In
1990s, Japan research flew a small
airplane powered by microwaves
beamed up from the ground. Indeed,
because the island nation has no
energy resources of its own, Japanese
officials have announced plans to
have their first solar power satellite in
operation by the year 2040. WPT,
however, also has great potential for
non-terrestrial applications, including
electrically propelled spaceships for
interplanetary (within Solar System)
as well as interstellar transport (at
sunlight speeds) by providing beamed
power for space propulsion systems,
such as those using space Sails In
2001 plans were announced to
perform additional research and
prototyping by launching an
experimental satellite of capacity
between 10 kilowatts and 1 megawatt
of power In Japanese continued to
study the idea of SPS throughout the
1980’s –1995 NASA began a Fresh
Look Study Set up a research,
technology, and investment schedule
NASA Fresh Look Report
SPS could be competitive with other
energy sources and deserves further
study Research aimed at an SPS
system of 250 MW Would cost
around $10 billion and take 20 years
National Research Council found the
research worthwhile but under funded
to achieve its goals
CONCLUSION
Global energy demand continues to
grow along with world wide concerns
over fossil fuel pollution, the safety of
nuclear power and waste, and the
impact of carbon-burning fuels on
global warming. As a result, space-
based, solar power generation may
become an important source of energy
in the 21st Century. Possible power
generation of 5 to 10 gigawatts –“If the
largest conceivable space power station
were built and operated 24 hours a day
all year round, it could produce the
equivalent output of ten 1 million
kilowatt-class nuclear power stations.”
If microwave beams carrying power
could be beamed uniformly over the
earth they could power cell phones.
More reliable than ground based solar
power. Today, however, the situation is
changed because of the very large
number of communications satellites in
low orbits. It might be possible to make
these satellites dual purpose—solar-
energy collectors as well as
Communications devices. Because of
the much lower orbits, the antennas on
the satellites and on the ground need
not be nearly so large. Thus, the
viability of solar-power satellites as a
long-term solution to our energy needs
is being investigated by government
agencies and individual companies in
many countries