China and Space-Based Solar Power
Purpose: Alert regarding a potential new strategic competition in aerospace
Background: Space-Based Solar Power is a concept for orbiting very large satellites to collect solar energy on orbit, and beam it to earth via lasers or microwaves.
Discussion: Recently, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a major design house and research facility for the Chinese space ELINT program, has made a formal announcement of a proposal to the Chinese government. This is the first such public announcement from China.
The principal spokesman, Professor Wang Xiji, a key drafter of the proposal has said: “China has acquired sufficient technology and had enough money to carry outthe most ambitious space project in history. Once completed, the solar station, with a capacity of 100MW, would span at least one square kilometre, dwarfing the International Space Station and becoming the biggest man-made object in space,” and warned that if China “did not act quickly,Chinawould let other countries, in particular the USandJapan, take the lead and occupy strategically important locations in space,” and that “Whoever takes the lead in the development and utilization of clean and renewable energy and the space and aviation industry will be the world leader” and that “the area of space and aviation is an emerging strategic industry and the development of a space solar-energy station requires high-end technology” and “such a stationwill trigger a technical revolution in the fields of new energy, new material, solar power and electricity,” would “lead to the emergence of several industries...and possibly even an industrial revolution.”CAST has a detailed 5 step plan to achieving the first commercial SPS.“In 2010, CAST will finish the concept design; in 2020, we will finish the industrial level testing of in-orbit construction and wireless transmissions. In 2025, we will completethe first 100kW SPS demonstration at LEO; and in 2035, the 100mW SPS will have electric generating capacity. Finally in 2050, the first commercial level SPS system will be in operation at GEO.
A national goal to explore SBSP need not achieve the stated goal of affordable and infinite green energy appropriate to city base-load electricity to be significant. The CAST authors state “The acquisition of space solar power will require development of fundamental new aerospace technologies, such as revolutionary launch approaches, ultra-thin solar arrays, on- orbit manufacture/assembly/integration (MAI), precise attitude control, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for deep space exploration and space colonial expansion.” Such technologies have direct impact on space access, in-space maneuver, space control, and even force application.
It is clear the CAST proponents see SBSP in strategic terms: “Since SPS development will be a huge project, it will be considered the equivalent of an Apollo program for energy.In the last century, America's leading position in science and technology worldwide was inextricably linked with technological advances associated with implementation of the Apollo program. Likewise, as China's current achievements in aerospace technology are built upon with its successive generations of satellite projects in space, China will use its capabilities in space science to assure sustainable development of energy from space…it is necessary for China to launchan SPS-type Apollo project to increase research and development investment in all corollary fields. This will relate to the country's goal of attaining the leading position in both energy and space technology” and that therefore, “the [Chinese] state has decided that power coming from outside of the earth, such as solar power and development of…space energy resources…is to be China's future direction.”
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SOURCE MATERIAL:
Space Agency Looks To Capture Sun's Power
By Stephen Chen [
Hong KongSouth China Morning Post Onlinein English
Sep 3, 2011
A mainland space agency says the government should build solar power stations in space to solveChina's energy problems.
The China Academy of Space Technology, a research institute under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said on its website on Thursday that it hadsubmitted a plan to the central government to build a massive facility in space to capture solar power and relay it to earth to generate electricity.
Li Ming, deputy director of the academy, received enthusiastic feedback on the ambitious plan at a conference on Wednesday that included seniorofficials from the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and other agencies,the statement said.
The mainland is home to the world's largest manufacturing plants of solar panels, andwith the bankruptcy of threeUSmanufacturers in the last month, mainland companies now dominate the world supply, accounting for almost three-fifths of total capacity, a report in The New York Times said yesterday.
Economies of scale, low wages and technological advances have enabled Chinese companies to make solar panels cheaply, firing up mainland space scientists' ambitions.
Professor Wang Xiji, a key drafter of the proposal, wrote an article in the Ministry of Science and Technology newspaper Science Times saying thatChinahad built up a solid industrial foundation, acquired sufficient technology and had enough money to carry outthe most ambitious space project in history.
Once completed, the solar station, with a capacity of 100MW, would span at least one square kilometre, dwarfing the International Space Station and becoming the biggest man-made object in space, he wrote.
Wang said the solar station wouldovercome several shortcomings of earth-based plants, such as sensitivity to weather, wasteful land use and a complete shutdown at night. Put in a permanent geostationary orbit, high enough to escape most of the earth's shadow, it would providea consistent energy supply for 99 per cent of the year.
Wang warned that if it did not act quickly,Chinawould let other countries, in particular theUSandJapan, take the lead and occupy strategically important locations in space.
TheUSspace agency Nasa proposed a solar power station as early as the 1960s, whileJapan's Jaxa selected a group of companies and researchers in 2009 to design and build the Space Solar Power System, a massive array of photovoltaic panels, with an anticipated launch date of 2020.
But some scientists said a solar station in space faced technical hurdles that could not be solved by today's technology. The problems include how to lift a large amount of construction materials into space, how to put them together and how to transfer the energy to earth.
Chinese space scientists are considering lasers and microwaves, generating concentrated beams that could travel a long distance with relatively little energy loss. But they have not figured out how to protect people or birds that might get in the way.
Professor Jiang Kaili, a physicist atTsinghuaUniversity, said that in theory wireless energy transmission was possible. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in theUShad used strong resonate coupling technology to transfer energy via a magnetic near-field with impressive efficiency.
"The range of transmission reaches a few metres," he said. "It will need to get out of a room before venturing to space."
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From:
China unveils plan for solar power station in space
Chinese space technology pioneer Wang Xiji believes solar energy stations in outer space will be a key energy resource in the future. (File Photo/CFP)
"The development of a solar power station in spacewill fundamentally change the way in which people exploit and obtain power," Wang Xiji, a space technology pioneer at the China Academy of Sciences, said while presenting the results of his team's research on developing such a station.
Speaking about China's ambitious space solar energy program, 90-year-old Wang said such a stationcould promote international cooperation. "Whoever takes the lead in the development and utilization of clean and renewable energy and the space and aviation industry will be the world leader," Wang said at the fourth China Energy Environment Summit Forum on Aug 28.
The program will utilize existing technology to launch solar-collector satellites into geostationary orbit. These satellites will convert the sun's radiation into electricity 24 hours a day,and safely transmit the electricity via microwaves to rectifying antennas on Earth. The concept was first proposed by US space expert Peter Glaser in 1968.
Currently, the United States, Japan, Europe and Russia have plans to invest several billion US dollars in establishing their own 1 million-kilowatt power stations to begin operation between 2030 and 2040. China has not yet taken its first step in this regard.
A team led by Wang completed research on the development, timelines and policy for space solar power station technology in August. The program offers guidelines for developing such a station. It aims to complete analysis of space solar power applications, detailed design of system solutions and key technologies as well as key technologies for authentication by 2020.Under the plan, a space solar energy station for commercial use will be completed by 2040.
Wang believes such a stationwill trigger a technical revolution in the fields of new energy, new material, solar power and electricity.
Wang saidthe area of space and aviation is an emerging strategic industry and the development of a space solar-energy station requires high-end technology. Such a program would lead to the emergence of several industries, Wang said. He believes it could lead to a technical revolution and possibly even an industrial revolution.
China's solar energy stations down on planet Earth have developed rapidly. In 2010, the country's solar photovoltaic power capacity was 800,000 kilowatts, while 168 million square meters of area used solar-powered water heating.
The government's 12th five-year plan also proposes increasing the country's solar photovoltaic power generation capacity to 10 million kilowatts by 2015 and 20 million kilowatts by 2020.
It is estimated thata solar power stationin orbit could harness five times the solar energy captured by stations on the ground.
Li Ming, a space technology expert said that after 50 years of development, China's space and aviation industry has made significant progress and laid a sound foundation for a space solar power station.
References
Wang Xiji王希季
Solar Power Satellites Research in China
GaoJi, HouXinbin, and Wang Li
China Academy of Space Technology
Abstract
In its long-term vision, the responsibility for ensuring China's food safety for its huge population, meeting its international obligations for environmental protection and providing the structure for its energy needs have determined that the direction of future development of low-carbon energy sources cannot be to sacrifice the "inner" earth. Thus, the state has decided that power coming from outside of the earth, such as solar power and development of other space energy resources, is to be China's future direction.
Space based solar power (SBSP), and the development of solar power satellites (SPS) to facilitate renewable energy production, is one of the "outside" approaches currently under development in China. Based on China's future vision for energy development, this paper will present why SPS development is important for China. A brief introduction to China's SPS project is given.
Energy Status and Future in China
According to a report released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in February 2009, in 2008 China's total energy consumption reached 2.85 billion tons of standard coal, while its electricity consumption reached 3.45 trillion KWh, a recorded 5.6% increase over the previous year. The annual report on China' Energy Development, pointing to the prospect for future energy demand, shows that in 2020, 2030 and 2050, China's total energy consumption of standard coal will climb to 3.5 billion, 4.2 billion and 5.0 billion tons respectively. In 2050, about 85% of the growth in energy demand can feed from fossil fuels, from nuclear power, and from hydropower. Only 30% of the remaining 15% of that growth in energy demand can be met the energy by non-hydro renewable energy resources, such as wind power, bio-energy, terrestrial solar power and tidal energy. That means that by 2050, despite China's continuing growth in energy production based on traditional energy areas, there is a considerable energy gap (approx. 10.5%), for which the state must look to such newer energy producing approaches as fusion and space power stations.
Source: Annual Report on China's Energy Development
The Chinese Academy of Engineering's cautionary report has shown that the fossil energy reserves in China, such as oil, coal and natural gas, will be exhausted in the next 15 years, 82 years and 46 years correspondingly. How to fix the perceived loss of traditional energy resources has become an important problem for China's government. The CAE report also raises the question of growing public concerns over higher fossil fuel prices. More recently, in a 2009 global environmental summit in Copenhagen, the Chinese government promised that by 2020 China's greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced to 40% compared with 2005. It suggests that the government believes that continuing to develop energy resources and environment protection are not internally inconsistent, and that low-carbon energy has a promising future in China.
Why SPS is important for China
Since 1968, when Dr. Peter Glaser proposed the first SPS scenario, the concept of solar power satellites has been under consideration. During those 40-plus years, the renewable energy requirement for electricity has been continuously going up. As one of the principal economies in the world, China is thirsty for energy to water its blooming industries. SPS is regarded as a reasonable path to energy production. Either from geostationary earth orbit (GEO) or in low earth orbit (LEO), this type of power system will have more direct access to the power of the sun. In analyzing the characteristics of SPS and space solar power applications, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) concludes that the advantages of SPS for China can be grouped into three relevant directions: sustainable economic and social development, disaster prevention and mitigation, and the retaining of qualified personnel and the cultivating of innovative talents.
Sustainable development: With its population growth and rapid economic development, over the next 30 years China will become one of the most powerful and influential economies of the world. During this time, energy resources and environmental issues will be serious challenges for China. To avoid the grave consequences and to learn lessons drawn from others' mistakes, a sustainable development strategy will need to be adopted. This strategy can be expected to include renewable energy sources from outside earth to alter the heavily reliance on fossil fuels, a process that will contribute to world energy development and assure environment protection.
The acquisition of space solar power will require development of fundamental new aerospace technologies, such as revolutionary launch approaches, ultra-thin solar arrays, on- orbit manufacture/assembly/integration (MAI), precise attitude control, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for deep space exploration and space colonial expansion. Since SPS development will be a huge project, it will be considered the equivalent of an Apollo program for energy. In the last century, America's leading position in science and technology worldwide was inextricably linked with technological advances associated with implementation of the Apollo program. Likewise, as China's current achievements in aerospace technology are built upon with its successive generations of satellite projects in space, China will use its capabilities in space science to assure sustainable development of energy from space.
Disaster prevention and mitigation: In 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed thousands of people in the U.S. Meanwhile, every year several typhoons bother the east coast of China. From preliminary research, it appears that microwave wireless power transmission may heat the top of the clouds, thereby reducing the force of typhoons and hurricanes. In 2008, China's southern region experienced a rare snowstorm; such an extreme weather attack led to a complete paralysis of the entire southern power grid due to the frozen grid. Without wired power supplied, the economy of the Southern provinces suffered heavy losses in the first few months of 2008. Again, if there had been an operational SPS power system in China, wireless power transmission quite possibly could have unfrozen the grid, and restored power to the region.
In May 2008, in the great Sichuan region, a deadly earthquake measured at 8.0 magnitude killed thousands of lives. The most important steps to be taken in mitigating the effects of that earthquake was to rebuild the human support system and provide an alternative communication system, each of which depended on the reinstatement of power supply systems. As space satellite systems can help to supply prompt restoration of terrestrial communications, and space solar power systems can achieve wireless power transmission via microwave and laser beams, space-based solutions would have been the fastest and most appropriate way to crack those problems.