China wants to place solar power plant in stratosphere before 2025

China reportedly plans to place one or more relatively small solar power plants in the stratosphere between 2021 and 2025. This should later be transferred to a larger power station that can actually generate solar energy for use on Earth.

Chinese scientists from China’s Academy of Space Technology have reportedly begun construction of an early experimental solar stratosphere power plant in the city of Chongqing, the Sydney Morning Herald reports citing Chinese media. One or more solar power plants should be launched to the stratosphere between 2021 and 2025, mainly testing the concept and transmission of the energy to Earth. For example, the generated energy could be transported to Earth via a laser or microwaves. The stratosphere is the part of the atmosphere at an altitude between roughly 10 and 50 km.

Then, in 2030, the construction of a megawatt power plant for space is to start. Construction of a commercially viable gigawatt power plant should begin in 2050. Such plans for generating energy in space are not new, but according to the scientists, this project will make China the first country in the world to realize such a concept.

The idea of ​​such a project is to provide an inexhaustible source of clean energy. According to a Chinese scientist, such a space plant could eventually deliver reliable energy at six times the intensity compared to terrestrial solar farms 99 percent of the time. In the final concept, the solar power station is to be placed in orbit around the earth at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers.

The current project still has a number of technical challenges that need to be overcome, such as the weight of a solar power plant. This is expected to be 1000 tons, which is significantly heavier than the 400-ton ISS. To tackle this weight problem, it is also being investigated whether it is possible to deploy a space factory where robots and 3D printers are used to build the solar power plant in space.