>From The Kiplinger Letter, Friday, September 18, 2009
ENERGY SECTION: Space based power plants are no longer just a science fiction fantasy. Pacific Gas & Electric aims to supply 250,000 customers from one by 2016. The Calif. Utility inked a deal with Solaren Corp. for 200 megawatts of electricity... power to be generated by an orbiting solar cell plant and transmitted as microwaves to Fresno, where it'll be converted to electricity. Solaren, PowerSat, Space Energy and others working on orbital power are getting a lift from state laws requiring more use of renewable sources And they figure that they will have a steady customer in the Defense Dept., which wants a means of getting power to troops in remote areas. [Personal comment: Of course, generating power for "our" troops means it would be just as easy to generate power for "their" troops located on the other side of the hill. I wonder how focused they can make those microwave beams.] Also in the pipeline: A coal burning plant that puts out no carbon dioxide. SCS Energy is developing a 750-megawatt New Jersey plant that will siphon off the gas and pipe it far offshore for entombment beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The SCS facility is about five years off and will likely be followed by others. They'll be expensive... with initial costs 50% higher than for a standard coal burning plant. But the value of carbon credits earned under a coming climate control law will help offset that. --- Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
