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 At the U.N. climate conference, Palau President Tommy Remengesau Jr. has shown interest in space-based solar power. Even with astronomical prices, this alternative source of energy is possible with today's technology.
For those who don't know how it works, satellites will collect solar energy with solar panels. Then its beamed down to rectified antennas where it will be turned to electricity. Satellites would transmit power to Earth on a regular basis to provide flowing electricity.
Pentagon and NASA studied the space power technology and did find uses for it. Pentagon then concluded that space power can be used for U.S.
military operations. On the other hand, NASA visualized a solar panel measuring three
by six miles that can produce five gigawatts of power, twice the output of
Hoover Dam.
As for Palau, American entrepreneur Kevin Reed proposed to do a demonstration on the country's Helen Island. A 260-foot-diameter antenna would gather one megawatt from an orbiting satellite 300 miles above Earth. It has enough power to supply energy to 100 homes.
With implications of climate change and the potentiality of space power, Robert N. Shock, an expert on future energy, said, "I wouldn't be surprised at the beginning of the next century to see significant power utilized on Earth from space - and maybe sooner."
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