Average per capita incomes of people in the Developed and Developing Nations have been diverging since the 1800s. The divergence increased after World War II. Now the per capita cost of commercial energy in the Developing Nations is a large fraction of the per capita income within the Developing Nations. Solar electric power could be provided to Earth from space or lunar installations. This new source power must be low in cost, ⩽1 ¢/kWe-h, in order to accelerate economic growth in the Developing Nations. Microwave beams appear to be the preferable method of delivering power to Earth. In order to provide low cost solar-electric power the projected cost of the microwave rectifier/antennas, termed rectennas, must be reduced. A reflector-rectenna is proposed to concentrate microwaves before they are converted by compact sets of antenna/rectifiers to electric power. Rectenna costs may be reduced by a factor of 5 and energy costs to the order of 1 ¢/kWe-h or less. The primary disadvantages of the concentrators are an ∼10% loss in efficiency and re-emission of non-captured microwave energy.
Space/lunar solar power systems research and needs (1999)
Space technology and applications international forum -1999 ; 1999 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 458 , 1 ; 1513-1518
1999-01-22
6 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Space/Lunar Solar Power Systems Research and Needs (1999)
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