Foundations of the study

The study was initiated by John Mankins, a former NASA executive and physicist. Mankins was successful in capturing solar energy from one of the mountain tops in Maui. From the mountain top, he then beamed it to a distance of more than ninety miles to the main island of Hawaii. The said experiment which was shown in Discovery Channel’s “Project Earth” is the first of its kind.

According to Mankins and his team, the experiment provides new insights regarding the possibility of applying wireless power transmission on space-based satellites that are solar powered. The experiment, which was patterned after the 1970 long range power transmission of NASA in California, also offers some possible developments for home panels solar group.

Implications of the study

The Discovery Channel-sponsored study was conducted with the support of various researchers and scientists from Texas, California, and Japan. To improve the energy transmission capabilities of the solar cells, the study focused on the use of mirrors in focusing solar power. According to reports, the team was successful in generating five times more solar energy than what typical home panels solar groups could usually collect and transmit.

In the experiment, the team successfully transmitted 20 watts. Mankins pointed out that although the transmitted energy is just enough to power a small light bulb, the overall energy transmission results were limited not due to physics, but because of the team’s budget for the solar energy system. He notes that if they could have afforded the costs of more solar panels, more phased array transmitters and better receivers, the experiment would have yielded more transmitted energy.

Mankins and his team claim that the systems efficiency might have been increased to as much as 64%. They further explained that real progress in space-based solar power satellites can be achieved in less than 5 months, with funding that’s less than $1 million.

Based on reports, 120 gigawatts of solar power that hits the earth every second is more than enough to suffice the energy needs of mankind since the industrial era. However, when asked about the possibility of having an all space-based solar power for the future, Mankins noted that other energy resources should still be explored. “I think we need to maintain a portfolio of energy options. Using wind and other renewables in combination with space based solar power,” he explained. GP