Researchers Beam 'Space' Solar Power in Hawaii

Tonight at 10 pm Discovery Channel will air an episode of Project Earth on the recent first-of-its-kind experiment.
(repeats at 2am)

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/visionary-beams.html

Researchers Beam 'Space' Solar Power in Hawaii
By Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides September 12, 2008 | 4:31:48 PMCategories: Energy, Space

The key to our energy future may be in space. A new long-range energy transmission experiment opens the possibility of sending solar energy from space to earth.

Former NASA executive and physicist John Mankins captured solar energy from a mountain top in Maui and beamed it 92 miles to the main island of Hawaii.

Tonight at 10 pm Discovery Channel will air an episode of Project Earth on the recent first-of-its-kind experiment. This long range demonstration of wireless power transmission was also a key step toward space-based solar power satellites. The team also beamed the power almost 100 times farther than NASA's major 1970's power transmission in the Mojave Desert in California.

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The Discovery Channel-sponsored experiment was executed with the support of scientists in Japan, Texas and California and showed that real progress could be made toward space-based solar power satellites in less than 5 months with less than $1 million. Their concept also uses mirrors to focus as much solar power as possible on the solar cells. The Discovery Channel's teaser boasts that they were able to get five times more electricity than conventional solar cells.

The high winds, high altitude helicopter monitoring, and the need to pack up the whole rig every night to honor the sacred ground on Haleakala will probably make for some great TV tonight.

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NGU.

New details about a milestone step toward space-based solar power beaming.

A press briefing today in Washington, D.C. will detail a “first-of-a-kind” long-range demonstration of solar-powered wireless power transmission. The experiment made use of a solid-state phased array transmitter planted on the U.S. island of Maui (on Haleakala) and receivers placed on the island of Hawai’i (Mauna Loa) and airborne.

The power demo done May 5-9 was carried out by Managed Energy Technologies LLC of the U.S. - with Discovery Communications, Inc. bankrolling the 5 month project at less than $1 million.

The transmission of radio frequency (RF) energy shot across some 90 miles distance - and that’s almost 100-times further than an experiment done by NASA back in the 1970s.

http://www.livescience.com/blogs/2008/09/12/solarsat-power-beaming-demo-revealed/