US solar plant costs fall another 30 per cent in one year

Re:US solar plant costs fall another 30 per cent in one year by addHocker on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @01:42AM (#15291100)

Imagine if we could do solar in space.. infinite area- no soil wasted, the power transmitted as a ray of death... oh, so this is why we do not do solar in space.

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Re:US solar plant costs fall another 30 per cent in one year by redcalx on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @07:44AM (#15292636)

Technically it's not infinite. The sun emits about 10^26 Watts of solar radiation energy produced from the nuclear fusion of about 4*10^6 tonnes of hydrogen per sec, i.e. a 100% efficient dyson sphere would capture that much energy at most.

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Re:US solar plant costs fall another 30 per cent in one year by ccozan on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @03:43AM (#15291558)

How about building something similar to a space power station that loads huge batteries, then gravitationally launches them towards ground, while on the other side an automated system launches rockets with empty batteries that docks to the power station?

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Re:US solar plant costs fall another 30 per cent in one year by pjc50 on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @04:52AM (#15291811)

Guaranteed to be hugely net energy negative in the energy required to launch the batteries. Think about payload fractions and the huge amount of energy in rocket fuel.

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Re:US solar plant costs fall another 30 per cent in one year by adrianN on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @05:23AM (#15291916)

Step 1: Build a space elevator

Step 2: ...

Step 3: Profit!

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Re:US solar plant costs fall another 30 per cent in one year by addHocker on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @06:00AM (#15292082)

Launch Loop or Space Fountain are superior. Even the Laser Transmitted Energy solution is. Why? Because they do not have such tremendous costs to install and do not rely on hypothetical yet to develop substances.

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