this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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Solar panels in space could cut Europe's renewable energy needs by 80% (www.kcl.ac.uk)
submitted 20 hours ago by Pro@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36081990

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[โ€“] Cort@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Back of the napkin math:

Largest solar sail (much lighter than panels, but doesn't produce electricity) 2000 sq meters

200w/sq meter

400kwp

Also iirc the space solar farms plans I've seen call for re radiating the energy back via microwaves to dedicated receiving towers on the ground

[โ€“] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 5 hours ago

Yeah I've seen that. Microwave power beaming would work in theory it's just electromagnetic radiation after all. But the vast majority of it is going to get absorbed by water molecules, because that's what microwave radiation does, that's why it cooks your food.

They're probably going to bake a lot of seagulls as well.