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Solar energy in space to power India
Stanley Theodore
HYDERABAD, June 28: India is working intensely on having a solar power generation station in space to meet the nation’s ever growing energy requirements. The “hyperplane,” which needs to transport the infrastructure into space, will make a demonstrative flight at the 2008 end.
“India’s hypersonic air and space transport activity are now sharp focussed on energy production through space solar power by having solar power stations in orbit. The era of expendable launch vehicles should end and reusable launch vehicles (RLV) are needed”, Defence Research and Development Organisation’s chief controller, R&D, Mr VK Saraswath said.
On how best the scientific community and industry will meet this challenge will be the focus on the two-day conference on hypersonic technology for trans-atmospheric air and space transportation, which will be inaugurated by President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on Friday.
Mr Saraswath said RLVs are needed to make this mission cost effective. The hypersonic technology demonstrator vehicle (HTDV) is basically a fast transport vehicle into space. DRDO is making the HTDV, while Isro is making the RLV. Interestingly, the scram jets needed for these vehicles to work are currently being tested in Hyderabad.
Former chairman of Bharat Dynamic Ltd Mr Gopalaswamy, who made pioneering work in this field, is widely regarded as a “missionary” for solar energy. “The era of conventional fuels is ending. The sun’s intensity in space is nearly twice what we feel here on the Earth’s surface. On Earth, there is sunlight fit for power generation for six to eight hours a day. In space, it’s 24 hours. We need to have our own solar power station in orbit,” he said.
“Even if one per cent of our nation’s land area is utilised for solar energy, we could have nearly 1,000 giga watts of electric power. Consider this as the projected demand in 2030 is 400 GW and the current consumption is 120 GW,” he said to drive home the need to have solar power station in space. He also gave a possible collaboration scenario. For instance India, Brazil and South Africa have very good relations. They could collaborate on the technologies, infrastructure and expertise.
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