{"id":296648,"date":"2024-01-18T11:13:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T10:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=296648"},"modified":"2024-01-18T11:13:06","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T10:13:06","slug":"claim-big-mirrors-in-space-could-make-solar-panels-useful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=296648","title":{"rendered":"Claim: Big Mirrors in Space Could Make Solar Panels Useful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

University of Glasgow academic Onur \u00c7elik<\/a> has proposed huge space mirrors could allow solar panels to satisfy electricity demand in the morning and after sundown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reflectors in space could make solar farms on Earth work for longer every day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published: January 12, 2024 4.24am AEDT
Onur \u00c7elik<\/a>
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Space Technology, University of Glasgow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you happened to be looking at the sky in Europe on a cold night on February 5 1993, there is a chance you could have seen a dim flash of light<\/a>. That flash came from a Russian space mirror experiment called Znamya-2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Znamya-2 was a 20-metre reflective structure much like aluminium foil (Znamya means \u201cbanner\u201d in Russian), unfurled from a spacecraft which had just undocked from the Russian Mir space station. Its goal was to demonstrate solar energy could be reflected from space to Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the first and only time that a mirror had ever been launched into space for that purpose. But, three decades on, colleagues and I believe it\u2019s time to revisit this technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike proposals to build solar power stations in space<\/a> and transmit energy down to earth, all the generation would still happen down here. Crucially, these reflectors could help solar farms generate electricity even when direct sunlight is not available, especially during evening and early morning hours when demand for clean energy is greatest. Colleagues and I call this concept \u201corbiting solar reflectors\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/reflectors-in-space-could-make-solar-farms-on-earth-work-for-longer-every-day-220554<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The following is a video of the concept;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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