PG&E wants to beam power from space

Trent Hawkins

#1 – 10:38 AM April 14, 2009

So this is a power-harvester/deathray, right? I'd be very disappointed if it wasn't.

cinemajay

#2 – 10:45 AM April 14, 2009

PEW! PEW! PEW-PEW! PEW!

Osmyn

#3 – 11:44 AM April 14, 2009

What a coincidence, I just watched a clip on Isac Asimov saying that beaming power from space will usher in world peace: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpHPQCnHHl4&feature=channel

Anonymous Anonymous

#4 – 11:56 AM April 14, 2009

They'll have to remember to set it to "no disasters" mode, though. Otherwise the ray might miss and vaporize part of your city, and you'll have to spend a few minutes dispatching firefighters and rebuilding power lines.

kpkpkp

#5 – 12:08 PM April 14, 2009

The "no disasters" mode is not that hard to implement - but it will be easy enough to circumvent

Moo Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaaaa!

GTMoogle

#6 – 12:19 PM April 14, 2009

Oh yeah, http://www.solarenspace.com/ this is the website design of a company I trust to beam megawatts of power from space to earth's surface...

nutbastard

#7 – 1:04 PM April 14, 2009

Tesla had similar ideas, but was shut down when it was revealed that he wasn't interested in charging money for energy.

Moriarty

#8 – 1:28 PM April 14, 2009

Yeah, and he developed limitless free energy via perpetual motion machines, and predicted and preemptively cured AIDS, and developed toast that always lands jelly-side up. But of course, all of these inventions were suppressed, respectively, by the evil oil, pharmaceutical, and household cleaning product companies.

dculberson

#9 – 1:32 PM April 14, 2009

Quote from Cryptogon: "In short: The various death ray projects would have a viable power source." If you're able to aim the microwave beam anywhere you'd like, I don't know why you would need the death ray on the ground. Megawatts of microwave energy would destroy electronics, humans, machines, munitions, buildings... Why bother separating the "death ray" and the source?

Oh, and side note: terrifying.

Noah_J

#10 – 3:43 PM April 14, 2009

aw, nice! now we just need to have someone whip up some cult-prone robots to keep the things running.

Anonymous Anonymous

#11 – 3:45 PM April 14, 2009

wouldn't anybody nearby be able to pick up the signal and steal power? would the Power "beam" be concentrated enough to avoid that? would the power "beam" be strong enough to cause damage the the environment of the receiving station or any passing birds, planes, etc?

hungryjoe

#12 – 6:12 PM April 14, 2009

This can't be more efficient than locating the solar panels on earth, can it? For the same cost, how many solar panels could we put in the Mojave Desert or some similar place?

Anonymous Anonymous

#13 – 6:51 PM April 14, 2009

Oh, and side note: terrifying

DCULBERSON:

No more terrifying than any of the other weapons that can rain death and destruction at a moments notice anywhere in the world.

How is this more terrifying than a good 'ol fashion anti-personnel artillery shell? Or a cluster bomb? Or a nuclear weapon? Or machete-armed racists in Rwanda?

muteboy

#14 – 7:30 PM April 14, 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tower_King

It won't end well.

Trilby

#15 – 1:36 AM April 15, 2009

Hey, it's cool. We've got Bond, and I'm sure some of you lot over the pond can fish up a hot female agent.

Bugs

#16 – 3:10 AM April 15, 2009

Lots of different plans for this system have cropped up over the last few decades. Most of the ones I've seen follow the same basic idea: use solar energy to drive a microwave laser, which you shine at a receiving platform on the ground.

All sorts of problems crop up with the idea. The big three are:
1) Moisture in the air will absorb the microwaves and re-emit them as heat. It probably wouldn't have a big effect on weather -- maybe just some local turbulence -- but a cloudy or humid day would mean you lose a lot of the energy en route.

2) Aiming the beam is tricky; you're shining a laser from a satellite in geosynchronous orbit (approx 35,700km high). Even if you manage to make a receiving station as big as 2km in diameter, it's a very small target over that distance. Then remember that the changing refractive indices of air masses (controlled by temperature, humidity, etc) will make the beam bend as it passes through them.

3) Wildlife - arguably a minor concern, bu assuming you can get past 1 and 2, you'd better hope you're not on a migratory route for anything that flies.

So this is a lot like the space elevator. An awesome idea that we, as a species, really do need to get sorted. But I'm seriously skeptical that we'll see a practical application within 50 years.

Trent Hawkins

#17 – 7:49 AM April 15, 2009

#13 - Because none of those are hovering directly over our heads at the moment.

dculberson

#18 – 8:55 AM April 15, 2009

Anon13, what Trent Hawkins said. Keep in mind that this has no consumables. There's no cost to "firing" it. And theoretically, if some safeguard failed, it could continue to rain death and destruction down, non-stop, either in a continuous path meandering across the globe or in a specific area. So imagine limitless bombs with no delivery mechanism required going off over and over again. I'd say that's a little more terrifying, on a global scale, than a machete wielding maniac in Rwanda. Not on an immediate personal scale - if I was having a machete wielded against me I'd be just as scared.

But this thing could be somewhat like Damocles' Sword, hanging over everyone's head, permanently.

Or it could be the path to world peace. You never know.

Anonymous Anonymous

#19 – 3:40 AM April 16, 2009

It's a Californian energy company! What are they known for again? Oh ya, lying and cheating and rolling blackouts to serve external markets!

This is money laundering, pure and simple. The Mob is nothing compared to these people. There is no product, and no serious plans.