Japan: Going Solar, In Space

In what may be one of its most ambitious solar projects to date, Japan again affirms its reputation for technological savvy: the country’s space agency plans to send arrays of photovoltaic dishes right outside of earth’s atmosphere, where it will collect solar energy and beam it back down using laser beams or microwaves. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to have the Space Solar Power System (SSPS) up and running in geostationary orbit by 2030, and the government has already selected the companies and researchers to realize this goal. (Power players include Mitsubishi Electric, Fujitsu and Sharp.)

“Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming,” researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, wrote in a report.

As with any large, multi-billion-dollar government undertaking, the hopes are high. Possessing few energy resources of its own and heavily dependent on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in clean technologies, not the least of which is solar. SSPS researchers ultimately aim to launch a one-gigawatt system, which would produce electricity at eight yen (~$0.09 USD), one-sixth of its current cost in Japan. The fact that solar energy in space is at least five times stronger in space as it is on earth makes the project doubly attractive.

Having pursued the SSPS project since 1998, the Japanese government has not been idle on the subject of solar in space. With approximately 130 researchers working on the initiative, JAXA has already drawn up a roadmap, detailing steps to reach along the way.

Within several years, “a satellite designed to test the transmission by microwave should be put into low orbit with a Japanese rocket,” said Tatsuhito Fujita, one of the JAXA researchers heading the project.

The next step, expected around 2020, would be to launch and test a large flexible photovoltaic structure with 10 megawatt power capacity, to be followed by a 250 megawatt prototype.

This would help evaluate the project’s financial viability, say officials. The final aim is to produce electricity cheap enough to compete with other alternative energy sources.

There is, however, one major obstacle JAXA admits it needs to address: public opinion.

JAXA says the transmission technology would be safe but concedes it would have to convince the public, which may harbor images of laser beams shooting down from the sky, roasting birds or slicing up aircraft in mid-air.