Is Solar Wind Power a Viable Choice?: Wind Energy: Eco20/20

Is Solar Wind Power a Viable Choice?

Solar energy has long been the favorite among many scientists because it is one of the most abundant renewable energy sources and it has the potential to be the cheapest. Scientists all over the world are searching for ways to make truly efficient solar panels so that solar power can finally become a practical choice for everyone. But there may be an even better way to harness the power of the sun. Scientists now believe we may be able to collect energy a little closer to the source by harvesting solar wind.

Solar wind is not actual wind but a stream of charged particles that moves toward Earth from the Sun's outer atmosphere. The energy from solar wind has the potential to provide power for the entire population of Earth if scientists can find a way to harvest it and transport it to Earth's surface. At the current time, several researchers are working on ideas to do that very thing.

The general consensus among scientists is that solar wind could be captured by a massive solar sail in space. Researchers at Washington State University presented a proposal for a collecting system that consists of a 32.8-foot sail connected to a 6.6-foot wide receiver by 984 feet of copper wire. This system could potentially power 1000 houses.

Another potential method for collecting this limitless power source is the Dyson Harrop satellite. This satellite would consist of a 5,219-mile wide sail and a 3,280-foot long wire loop. This setup could generate 1 billion, billion kilowatts of energy, almost 100 billion times what we need to power the entire planet. The Dyson Harrop is one of the most feasible ideas for collecting solar wind energy thus far, though scientists worry about the potential for wire burnout. The real problem, however, lies in getting the energy from the collector to the ground where it can be used by consumers.

One suggestion for transporting the energy is to beam it to Earth by concentrated laser beams. Unfortunately, with the technology currently available, the beam would continuously spread on its journey to Earth's surface. Unless a way is discovered to keep the laser beam focused, by the time it reaches Earth, it will have weakened to the point where it isn't much more powerful that regular sunlight. It is estimated that with our current technology it would take a perfect lens 6 - 62 miles across to successfully transfer the solar wind power to the ground.

So, is solar wind power viable? It certainly appears that we may have a future that involves unlimited renewable power from solar winds but it probably won't happen anytime soon. There is little doubt that research will continue in this direction but until scientists find a way to bring the captured energy down to Earth, we will have to depend on other sources.

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