Japan to try beaming solar power from space in mid-decade

Promising tech harvests the sun's bounty day and night -- even in bad weather

20230525N space solar power

Solar panels in space would send down power as microwave radiation. (Image courtesy of Kyoto University)

SATOSHI KAWAHARA, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- A new global race is heating up to develop technology for transmitting solar power collected in space to Earth, with a Japanese public-private partnership aiming to run a trial around fiscal 2025.

Space-based solar power was proposed by an American physicist in 1968. The concept is to launch solar panels into space to generate electricity at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers.

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