Submitted by larsschellhas t3_124pxcz in space
Brain_Hawk t1_je16al7 wrote
Reply to comment by larsschellhas in Is Space-Based Solar Power An Option to Solve Humanity's Energy Hunger After All? by larsschellhas
That $10 per kilogram is an extremely optimistic estimate cited by a person who was well known to exaggerate in order to drive interest and investment.
Personally I suspect it's going to be quite a bit more than that, not that I'm an expert on launch cost. But I think we need to be a bit more skeptical of the claims being made at this time.
To the bigger question, I think any technology may be feasible in the future, but as far as I can see there's still a lot of challenges with orbital-based power. In particular the cost of sending it up and maintaining it, and the amount of power we can get generated back down on earth, and distributing that to a wide area.
But, if we don't come up with a better solution, it's definitely something I can see being in place in the next 50 or 100 years.
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