SOLAR POWER SYSTEM

     Can you ever imagine life without lights, fans, cars, computers and television or of fetching water from the well and river? This is what life would have been like had man not discovered the uses of energy both renewable and nonrenewable resources.are of different types for e.g. solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, geothermal energy etc. Now let us focus on solar energy as it is one of the abundant forms of energy available. Power "For the successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." Richard Feyman Energy. It has been already said that the rationale for going into space, apart from the fact that the human race must extend its limits and explore and then conquer space, has to do with retrieving energy, mainly the Sun's energy. About 80 % of the total energy demanded by our society is supplied from fossil fuels. 90% of the CO2 which is the major cause of the greenhouse effect comes from combustion. It is now widely accepted that the only way to reduce the environmental risks while sustaining the economic growth is to develop a large-scale alternative energy system which is ecologically benign.

     A scientific venture must be pursued when it follows certain logic and the solution is correct, even if technology for proper utilization is not current or not available. Such is this case. Although the human race would perhaps not be able in the very immediate future to exploit the untapped potential of solar energy, it is certainly a direction that must be

followed. Exclusive dependence on fossil fuels will inevitably lead to energy shortages. 

    It must be remembered that this scheme was one of the main determinants in choosing the location of the space colony. The liberationpoints along the Earth's path were chosen primarily for their constant exposure to sunshine Solar Energy here on Earth Why should we go into space to get solar energy and not profit directly from it here on Earth? The answer is twofold.

Solar Power Satellites:

   A possible scheme for producing power on a large scale contemplates placing giant solar modules alongside the colony where energy generated from sunlight would be converted to microwaves and beamed to antennas on earth for recon version to electric power. On ground, the microwave power is rectified and converted to the commercial electric power.

      To produce as much power as five large nuclear power plants (1 billion watts each) several square km of solar collectors, weighing more than 5 million kg would have to be assembled in the settlement. An earth-based antenna 5 miles in diameter would be required for reception. These vast assemblies are often referred to as Solar Power Satellites (SPS) .The concept of the SPS is revolutionary with a high potentiality to solve the global environmental problems, as it uses the limitless solar energy, it utilizes the space outside of the earth ecology system, and it has no by-product waste. The use of Even though one of its panels could never be deployed, Skylab effectively demonstrated solar energy.A large-scale receiving antenna, retina, is necessary to collect the microwave power from space.

The Atmosphere :

     The benign atmosphere protects us from the intensity of the sun's rays, that are filtered by our gaseous cover. That same protective effect which shields us and allows life on Earth also prevent us from fully receiving the Sun's energy. It is estimated that, in average, between 0.1 and 0.2 kW/m2 of solar energy can be received from the Sun on the Earth's surface. In near Earth space the quantity o energy that can be collected is approximately ten times as much, that is, around 1 to 2 kW/m2 in average. This first reason is obviously decisive. 

The Earth's rotation :

       But even if extra sensitive solar panels could be engineered, there is another problematic factor that complicates full utilization of the sun's energy. The rotation of the Earth, as we very well know, gives rise to days and nights, which means that during 12 hours in average no sunlight hits the surface of our planet. Because of this, solar energy devices have to trap the heat during the night period and great pains are taken to ensure that minimum heat gets lost. None of these problems will be met in space, where sunshine is constant and with far greater intensity