Thursday, August 07, 2008

Space Based Solar Power Videos


The above video is "a message for the next president of the United States" on the subject of space based solar power. I agree with the motivation, concepts, and the long-term need, though I'm not sure about all their numbers. They say that our usable oil reserves will only last 45 years. They say that even if we tap all available Earth-based alternative energy sources, we will still be short about 66% of world-wide energy requirements in 2100. There are a lot of assumptions and extrapolations in figures like those on both the supply and demand sides, and they don't say anything about their sources or calculations (a lot of the background seems to be here). But they finally suggest that you Google "space based solar power" to learn more, which is a good idea. I do love the line, "when it comes to energy, it's time to drill up, not down." Read the transcript here.

Thanks to Louise Riofrio for the tip. She referenced NSS, and NSS also provides a link to a 5 minute ESA video on space based solar. That video is much less political and includes a really interesting graphic of historical energy use. NSS is a great resource on space based solar power.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The Canadian Sand Oil will benefit first by having a clean energy source of Space Based Solar Power providing 1 GW per year of energy that enables extraction of 1.7 Trillion Barrels of oil as opposed to 170 Billion done by very toxic open pit mining.

At $25 per barrel that is $42.5 Trillion dollar. I would say good incentive for SBSP

Kevin Reed
Welsom Space Power "The Race is On!"