Thaindian News

Chennai, Jan 9 (IANS) Former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Monday suggested that scientists and technologists to undertake research in the area of nano-energy packages for transmission of energy from prospective space-based solar power plants.

Speaking at the 20th National Laser Symposium at Anna University here, Kalam said: “The sun radiates about 10 trillion times the energy which humans consume across the world today. If we are able to extract even a small portion of this energy from the sun, it would be sufficient to secure the energy demands of our future.”

He said a space-based solar power plant would have several advantages over the earth-based ones and be more efficient in power generation.

The earth-based solar power panels can absorb solar energy only for six to eight hours whereas in the case of space-based solar power project, it will be round the clock and the energy collected could be transmitted back to earth by microwave or laser technology, Kalam said.

He said the three major focus areas in space-based solar power planst are the power plant itself; the earth-based collection system and thirdly the medium of transmission from the space to earth.

According to him, one way of safe energy transmission from the space based solar power plant is through nano energy packs - like nano batteries - that would store the energy and deliver power when brought back to the earth.

These nano energy packs could contain materials hitherto unknown that would store the energy through reversible chemical reaction or maybe electrical reactions and when brought back to earth, deliver energy touching several hundreds of watt hours per kg of payload.