Could it ever be practical to have a giant solar array in orbit that captures the sun's energy in an..........

Question

enormous battery? Or could the energy stored never be enough to offset the energy used in the retrieval so it can be brought to earth?

Answer 1

You are right going up and bring the battery back would not be cost effective and you could not make a battery big enough to make it worth the trouble. The better solution would be to transmit the energy back to earth via some sort of microwave, but I don't think we have that technology yet. There are many advantages to having the array in space. The sun is always shining and much more intense. The arrays could be light weight, and there is endless amount of space.

Answer 2

Of course it's possible to just send the energy down to earth with a microwave beam. But it's much cheaper to put solar cells on earth. They are currently developing a special kind of paint that works as a solar cell. Basically you just paint your house with it and the "paint" generates most of the electricity you need from light. It's less efficient then normal solar cells but much cheaper and you can cover your entire house with it.
So looking at how using solar cells on earth is getting cheaper and cheaper each year I don't think it would make sense to put solar cells in space. Also having super strong microwave beams going from space to earth can be quite dangerous if one of those things gets out of control or is taken over by terrorists. A big solar space station could destroy whole cities.

Answer 3

Why in space?

There is plenty of open space on earth for the array and you don't have to use batteries.

Answer 4

No reason to do that in orbit because it is simple to do on the ground.

Answer 5

Probably, but the person who did it would get killed because all the people who provide electricity would go out of biz.