SOLAR SPACE STATION

B. TECH. SEMINAR REPORT Submitted to Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY in ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

By

VAIBHAV P. BHOPALE
(ID 09003039) Guide

Ms. M. D. KHARDENVIS

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING GOVT. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AMRAVATI 444604

(An Autonomous Institute of Govt. of Maharashtra)

OCTOBER 2012

ABSTRACT

Conventional energy sources will last only up to the middle of the next century due to enhancement in living standard and explosive population growth. The current primary energy source fossil fuel threatens global environment by emitting CO2, which is responsible for green house effect. Solar Power from Space (SSP) promises clean and everlasting energy supply for the growth of the mankind. With the state-of art technologies yet developed, SSP is feasible but not economic. Key issues regarding SSP are launch cost, efficiency of solar cells, wireless power transmission, heavy investment, maintenance etc. Yet proposed models suggest to place space segment in GEO, LEO or at lunar surface, which are either economically infeasible due to huge launch cost or require long setup time. This paper presents a mutual collaboration based solar power model to overcome launch cost, which involves three GEO satellites and two earth stations, fetters analysis about economic feasibility of SSP, issues regarding microwave power transmission and influences of SSP on environment and existing life.

GOVT. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, AMRAVATI 444 604 (An Autonomous Institute of Govt. of Maharashtra) DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar entitled, SOLAR SPACE STATION, which is being submitted herewith for the award of B.Tech, and is the result of the work completed by VAIBHAV P. BHOPALE under my supervision and guidance within the four walls of the institute and the same has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of any degree.

Prof. M. D. KHARDENVIS Guide

Prof. A. S. SINDEKAR Head of Department

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the seminar entitled, SOLAR SPACE STATION was carried out and written by me under the guidance of Prof. M. D. KHARDENVIS, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Govt. College of Engineering, Amravati. This work has not been previously formed the basis for the award of any degree or diploma or certificate nor has been submitted elsewhere for the award of any degree or diploma.

Place:

Date:

VAIBHAV P. BHOPALE (ID 09003039)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It gives me great pleasure on bringing out report entitled SOLAR

SPACE STATION. I express my deep sense of gratitude and sincere regards to

our guide Prof. M. D. KHARDENVIS. His timely guidance and friendly discussions had helped me immensely in selecting this current seminar topic and completing this seminar work. I am thankful to our Head of Department Prof. A. S. SINDEKAR for providing me all the helpful facilities during the seminar work. Finally, I would like to thank all those who directly or indirectly helped me during my work.

VAIBHAV P. BHOPALE (ID 09003039) Final Year B. Tech (Electrical Engineering)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter No. Certificate Declaration Acknowledgement List of Figures 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview of Present Condition 1.2 Basics Of Solar Space Station 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Origin Of Solar Space Station 2.2 Future Energy Needs 2.3 Space Solar Power Vs Terrestrial Solar Power 3 SYSTEM DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES 3.1 System Design 3.2 Solar Cell: Efficient Structures 3.3 Space Segment: Where To Be Placed? 3.4 Wireless Power Transmission 3.5 Orbital Location 4 EFFECTS OF SOLAR SPACE POWER STATION 4.1 Global Warming 4.2 Effect On Other Communication Services 4.3 Orbital Congestion 5 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 5.1 Advantages 5.2 Disadvantages 6 CONCLUSION References Title Page No. i ii iii v 1 1 2 4 4 6 7 9 9 10 12 14 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 20 21

LIST OF FIGURE

Figure No. 1.1 2.1

Figure Name Microwave power transmission to a rectenna solar power satellite was to be located in a geosynchronous orbit, 36,000 miles above the Earth's surface World Population Prospects Daily duration of eclipses as a function of the date Reference Model: 5 GW GEO based Space Solar Power Station Designed by US Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Metal-Metal junction Cell Mechanism Quantum efficiency vs wavelength Solar power model based on mutual collaboration Spacetenna and ground side rectenna sizing criteria

Page No. 3 5

2.2 2.3 3.1

6 8 9

3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5

11 11 14 15

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERVIEW OF PRESENT CONDITION: Mankind has recently enhanced its living standard and its population in an explosive way. The consumption of energy, food, and material resources is predicted to increase 2.5 times in the coming 50 years. As a result of our efforts for better life, we have come to face, in this 21st century, serious global issues threatening our safe life or even our existence itself on our mother planet earth. These are issues such as global warming, environmental degradation, declining nutrition on land and sea from rising CO2, and rapid decrease of fossil reservoir. Since the living standard and the population of developing countries are increasing continuously, the demand of energy will be several times larger than that of today's requirement by the time of the half way of this century. To overcome these limitations concept of Solar Power from Space is getting momentum, Solar Power from Space is a proposed concept to place a gigantic solar power station in space orbiting around the earth that uses microwave power transmission to beam solar power to a very large antenna on earth where it can be used in place of conventional power sources.

1.2 BASICS OF SOLAR SPACE STATION:

Space solar power (SSP) is the concept of collecting solar power in space for use on Earth. SSP would differ from current solar collection methods in that the means used to collect energy would reside on an orbiting satellite instead of on Earth's surface. Some projected benefits of such a system are:

i.

Higher collection rate: In space, transmission of solar energy is unaffected by the filtering effects of atmospheric gases. Consequently, collection in orbit is approximately 144% of the maximum attainable on Earth's surface.

ii.

Longer collection period: Orbiting satellites can be exposed to a consistently high degree of solar radiation, generally for 24 hours per day, whereas surface panels can collect for 12 hours per day at most.

iii.

Elimination of weather concerns, since the collecting satellite would reside well outside of any atmospheric gasses, cloud cover, wind, and other weather events.

iv. v.

Elimination of plant and wildlife interference. Redirectable power transmission: A collecting satellite could possibly direct power on demand to different surface locations based on geographical baseload or peak load power needs.

SSP designs generally include the use of some manner of wireless power transmission. The collecting satellite would convert solar energy into electrical energy on board, powering a microwave transmitter or laser emitter, and focus its beam toward a collector (rectenna) on the Earth's surface as shown in fig.1.1. Radiation and micrometeoroid damage could also become concerns for SSP.

Fig. 1.1 microwave power transmission to a rectenna

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 ORIGIN OF SOLAR SPACE STATION:

Space-based solar power (SBSP) is the concept of collecting solar power in space for use on Earth. It has been in research since the early 1970s.

In 1941, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov published the science fiction short story "Reason", in which a space station transmits energy collected from the sun to various planets using microwave beams.

The SSP concept, originally known as Satellite Solar Power System (SSPS), was first described in November 1968. In 1973 Peter Glaser was granted U.S. patent number 3,781,647 for his method of transmitting power over long distances (e.g., from an SSP to Earth's surface) using microwaves from a very large antenna (up to one square kilometer) on the satellite to a much larger one, now known as a rectenna, on the ground Between 1978 and 1981, the Congress authorized the Department of Energy (DoE) and NASA to jointly investigate the concept. They organized the Satellite Power System Concept Development and Evaluation Program. The study remains the most extensive performed to date (budget $50 million).

In 1999, NASA's Space Solar Power Exploratory Research and Technology

program (SERT) (budget $22 million). Some of SERT's conclusions are:

i.

Space solar power systems appear to possess many significant environmental advantages when compared to alternative approaches.

Fig.2.1 solar power satellite was to be located in a geosynchronous orbit, 36,000 miles above the Earth's surface

ii.

The economic viability of space solar power systems depends on many factors and the successful development of various new technologies (not least of which is the availability of much lower cost access to space than has been available), however, the same can be said of many other advanced power technologies options.

iii.

Space solar power may well emerge as a serious candidate among the options for meeting the energy demands of the 21st century.

2.2 FUTURE ENERGY NEEDS:

The human population and primary power consumption increased 16-times during the 20th century . The consumption of energy, food, and material resources is predicted to increase 2.5 times in the coming 50 years. In 2000, the world had 6.1 billion human inhabitants. This number could rise to more than 9 billions in the next 50 years as shown in Fig.2.2. This future population increase is mostly due to very rapid increase in less developed countries although the number in more developed countries will be almost constant (about 1 billion) or rather decrease.

Fig.2.2 World Population Prospects

The explosive increase in the human population inevitably requires an exponential increase in the consumption of energy, food, and material resources. One primary power source at present comes from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. However, the fossil fuels have two serious factors which prevent them from being used for a long term as primary power source. One is their limited amount that

does not last long if used with the same or higher pace than that of today . The other is their negative feature of emitting carbon dioxide, one of the green house gases, which causes the global warming. Atmospheric has increased from 275 parts per

million (ppm) before the industrial era begun to 550ppm . Climate models data indicate that 550 ppm, if sustained, could eventually produce global warming comparable in magnitude but opposite in sign to the global cooling of the last Ice Age . Global energy demand continues to grow along with worldwide concerns over fossil fuel pollution, the safety of nuclear power and waste, and the impact of carbon burning fuels on global warming. As a result sustainable energy sources like solar, wind, hydropower, biomass, geothermal, hydrogen, ocean thermal, tidal power etc are drawing prime attention, out of which solar power is the most promising one. Terrestrial solar power has too many limitations like atmospheric attenuation, daily and seasonal variation, and affects by climate conditions etc.

2.3 SPACE SOLAR POWER (SSP) vs TERRESTRIAL SOLAR POWER (TSP): The SSP concept arose because space has several major advantages over earth for the collection of solar power. Space is free from day-night cycle, atmosphere, clouds, dust, rain, fog and other climatic changes, so it would receive 30% more intense and at least eight times more sunlight than that of at ground constantly and continuously unaffected by the weather. In geosynchronous orbit it would receive sunlight almost 24 hours a day hence avoiding the expensive storage facilities necessary for earthbased solar power systems. Since earths axis is tilted, it would be in earths shadow only for 70 minutes maximum at late night when power demands are at their lowest, during 42 days near the equinoxes as shown in Fig.2.3.

Fig.2.3 Daily duration of eclipses as a function of the date

CHAPTER 3

SYSTEM DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES

3.1 SYSTEM DESIGN The SSP system is composed of a space segment and a ground power receiving site (Fig.3.1). Space segment consists of mainly three parts; solar energy collector to convert the solar energy into DC (Direct Current) electricity, DC-tomicrowave converter, and large antenna array to beam down the microwave power to ground.Ground power receiving site uses a device called rectenna (rectifying antenna)

Fig.- 3.1 : Reference Model: 5 GW GEO based Space Solar Power Station Designed by US Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA

to receive and rectify the microwave power beam. The rectenna system converts the microwave power back to DC power which is then converted to conventional AC (Alternating Current), and is connected to existing electric power networks. Assuming typical values for efficiencies like 15% for solar panels to convert solar energy into DC, 70% conversion rate in the space segment from DC to microwave, 90% beam (power) collection efficiency, and 80% conversion rate for rectenna from microwave to DC in ground segment, the estimated over-all efficiency is approximately 7.5 %. With such efficiency a SSP space segment would be of size of about 50 km2 (5 km x 10 km) to generate 5 GW DC power on earth (Fig.3.1). 3.2 SOLAR CELL: EFFICIENT STRUCTURES: In future breakthroughs in nanotechnologies promise significant increase in solar cell efficiencies from current 15% values to over 50% levels. That might decrease required size of space segment by about 3 times. This paper proposes MetalMetal junction cavity solar cell which theoretically promises to increase solar electric conversion efficiency. A cavity of metal m2 (work function W2) with thin polish of metal m1 (work function W1, W1 <W2 , Fig.3.2) on inner surface, with a pin hole is kept at the focus of the solar concentrator coinciding the pinhole and focus. Pinhole is covered with transparent glass to protect inner polish of cavity from atmospheric reaction. Such cavity behaves as metal-metal junction solar cell (termed as M-M cavity solar cell) with various features (described below) leading to enhancement of solar-electric conversion efficiency. The major loss in usual structures is the reflection loss (about 30%) but in M-M cavity solar cell once ray enters in cavity, undergoes multiple inner reflections till completely absorbed.

 Quantum efficiency curve for all types of single incidence photoelectric conversion processes w.r.t wavelength as shown in Fig.3.3. Due to this, usual structures are not efficient over whole spectral range. There is not such a problem in M-M cavity cells as all the photons are completely absorbed. In usual structures energy of the photons greater than band gap or work function is lost emitting the photons of surplus energy (surplus loss).and also photons of energy below the band gap or work function are completely wasted (cutoff loss).So in usual structures a compromised value of band gap or work function has to be taken, which should be near peak spectral intensity. In practice semiconductor solar cells have band gap around 1 ev. Solar spectrum composition is 8% UV + 44% VL + 48% IR (0.44.0ev). So a major portion about 25% is wasted as cutoff loss. But in M-M cavity solar cell cutoff loss can be made zero having appropriate combination of metals for junction eg.- Cu-Al junction 4.7-4.28 = 0.42ev. A number of such cells can be connected in series to get higher voltage.There is no surplus loss due to cavity structure.

Fig.-3.2 Metal-Metal junction Cell Mechanism

Fig.-3.3 Quantum efficiency vs wavelength

 In semiconductor solar cells heat loss decreases efficiency further due to rise in temperature. In M-M cavity cells only loss is heat loss. Metals are good reflectors so a small portion is absorbed to produce loss in metal M1. Heat can flow from metal M1 to metal M2 via free electrons which will contribute photocurrent or via phonons which will be only the wasted part and increase temperature of both the metals. Other major losses in semiconductor solar cells are due to recombination loss (created holes and electrons recombine before contributing photocurrent), natural resistance of semiconductors and electrical contact resistance to external circuit. There is no such a loss in M-M cavity cells as they are metal-metal junction having no internal resistance and no contact problem with external circuit. They also dont involve electron-hole creation mechanism so no recombination loss. Further these are much cheaper to produce than semiconductor solar cells. So M-M cavity solar cells having no loss except phonon heat conduction loss, will give optimum solar-electric conversion efficiency.

3.3 SPACE SEGMENT: WHERE TO BE PLACED? Due to the huge size of the SSP space segment launching cost is the major factor affecting its economic feasibility. Consequently various ideas arouse due course of time about where to place it. The first concept is proposed to place it in GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit, 36000 km) so that it would be always in sunlight and directly above earth station hence it would supply non-stop constant energy to the earth station without need of controlling microwave beams direction. Major drawback of this model was huge launch cost to place such a large size station in GEO. Later on SPS Model, which was proposed by the SPS (Solar Power Satellite)

working group of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) suggests to place space segment in an equatorial LEO (Low Earth Orbit) at an altitude of 1100 km to reduce the launch cost. This Model needs retrodirective beam control capability to direct beam always towards rectenna site on ground and can serve only near equatorial zones. Some other models suggested to place it at lunar surface, which have benefit of launching cost as moon contains all the material for solar panels but it requires manufacturing facilities to be setup there . It also requires relay satellites in earths orbit. Due to very long distance it is expected to have very low over all efficiency of about 0.27%. Some other concepts proposed "SunTower" - a gravity gradient stabilized structure, and "SolarDisk" - a rotationally stabilized structure for space segment . In order to reduce launch cost and to make solar energy economic we proposes a mutual collaboration based solar power model (Fig.-6) in which two opposite side countries are supposed to agree to transmit solar power via wireless power transmission to each other during night. It involves three GEO based power relaying satellite, which are not supposed to be big in size. Transmitting earth station focuses microwave beam at the receiving GEO satellite, which always remains above it.Transmitting satellite then redirects the intensified beam to the relaying satellite (Fig.3.4), which then relays it to transmitting satellite, which always remains abovereceiving site. Transmitting satellite defocuses beam towards receiving earth station. Level of focusing and defocusing should be such that intensity of microwave beam near earth surface should remain under acceptable levels.

Fig.3.4 Solar power model based on mutual collaboration. 3.4 WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION: Power transmission from the satellite to the rectenna on ground is made by microwave beam using DC to microwave converters like Klystron, in ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) band at 2.45 GHz or 5.8 GHz emitted from the spacetenna with retrodirective beam control capability. The bandwidth of beam is quite narrow since an essentially monochromatic wave is used without modulation. Spacetenna directs the microwave power beam to ground based rectenna site, which transmits a pilot signal to enable spacetenna to locate rectenna site. The spacetenna is constructed as a phased-array antenna, which is a large number of dipoles attached to the same flat surface. Each one is fed energy from the transmitter. The relationship between spacetenna diameter (D1), rectenna diameter (D2), wavelength () and spacetenna to rectenna distance (S) is given by (Fig.3.5).(D1*D2)/(e*s)=2.8 A typical size of the rectenna site is 4 km in diameter for the transmitting antenna diameter of 1km operating at 5.8 GHz. Under these conditions, 93% of the transmitted power is collected. The peak microwave power density at the rectenna site results in

27 mW/cm2 if the Gaussian power profile on the transmitter is assumed. The beam intensity pattern has a non-uniform distribution with a higher intensity in the center of the rectenna and a lower intensity at its periphery as shown in Fig.-8. It is noted that the safety requirement for the microwave power density for human is set to 1mW/cm2 in most countries. The power density satisfies this requirement at the periphery.

Fig.3.5 Spacetenna and ground side rectenna sizing criteria 3.5 ORBITAL LOCATION

The main advantage of locating a space power station in geostationary orbit is that the antenna geometry stays constant, and so keeping the antennas lined up is simpler. Another advantage is that nearly continuous power transmission is immediately available as soon as the first space power station is placed in orbit; other space-based power stations have much longer start-up times before they are producing nearly continuous power.

CHAPTER 4

EFFECTS OF SOLAR SPACE POWER STATION

4.1 GLOBAL WARMING: It is commonly argued that since electricity generated by SSP would constitute a net addition of energy to the Earth, it would therefore upset the global energy balance, and in particular would add to "global warming". Although this is correct in principle, the quantities involved are far too small to be significant, particularly when compared to the heating effect of adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The solar energy intercepted by the Earth is some 180 million GW, of which only about half, or some 100 million GW, is absorbed, due to the reflection of sunlight from the Earth. Humans' total electricity production today is of the order of 1000 GW, which is therefore some 0.001% of the solar energy absorbed by the Earth. If this increases by a factor of 10, it will still be only of the order of 0.01% of the Earth's insolation, which is too small to have a significant global heating effect. It should also be noted that because of the high efficiency of rectennas in converting microwaves into DC electricity (some 90%), the heat added to the environment per unit of electric power produced by SSP is less than half that created by even the most efficient thermal power stations hence it will help to overcome global warming instead of increasing.

4.2 EFFECT ON OTHER COMMUNICATION SERVICES: Most SSP microwave systems are assumed to use frequency bands around 2.5 GHz or 5.8 GHz. These are allocated in the ITU-R Radio Regulations to a number of radio services and are also designated for ISM (Industry, Science and Medical) applications. So undesired emissions, such as grating lobes, sidelobes, carrier noise, harmonics, spurious, and out-of-band emissions of any Space Solar Power System must be suppressed sufficiently to avoid interference to other radio services and applications, in accordance with the provisions of the ITU-R Radio Regulations (RR). 4.3 ORBITAL CONGESTION: If spectrum congestion were negligible, satellites would only require separation of about 64 km. This corresponds to 0.1 spacing. The spectra of signal interference, however, has led regulators to mandate orbital separations of from 1,280 to 2,560 (2 to 4 spacing) or more km in order to avoid signal interference among neighboring communications satellites using the same frequencies. SSP could be operated in smaller separations. There have not yet been adequate studies of the required separation between SSP and communication satellites.

CHAPTER 5

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

5.1 ADVANTAGES

The SSP concept is attractive because space has several major advantages over the Earth's surface for the collection of solar power.

There is no air in space, so the collecting surfaces could receive much more intense sunlight, unobstructed by weather.

A satellite could be illuminated over 99% of the time, and be in Earth's shadow on only 75 minutes per night at the spring and fall equinoxes.

Relatively quick redirecting of power directly to areas that need it most. Higher collection rate: In space, transmission of solar energy is unaffected by the filtering effects of atmospheric gasses. Consequently, collection in orbit is approximately 144% of the maximum attainable on Earth's surface.

Longer collection period: Orbiting satellites can be exposed to a consistently high degree of solar radiation, generally for 24 hours per day, whereas surface panels can collect for 12 hours per day at most.[1]

Elimination of weather concerns, since the collecting satellite would reside well outside of any atmospheric gasses, cloud cover, wind, and other weather events.

Elimination of plant and wildlife interference. Redirectable power transmission: A collecting satellite could possibly direct power on demand to different surface locations based on geographical baseload or peak load power needs.

5.2 DISADVANTAGES

The SSP concept also has a number of problems.

The space environment is hostile; panels suffer about 10 times the degradation they would on Earth. System lifetimes on the order of a decade would be expected, which makes it difficult to produce enough power to be economical.

Space debris are a major hazard to large objects in space, and all large structures such as SBSP systems have been mentioned as a potential sources of orbital debris.

The broadcast frequency of the microwave downlink (if used) would require isolating the SBSP systems away from other satellites. GEO space is already well used and it is considered unlikely the ITU would allow an SPS to be launched

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

The space-based power can provide the necessary new source of clean energy for earth in the next century to loosen our dependence on fossil fuels. An international effort will be needed for any space-based system and many segments of the world's business and technical communities must be involved. This paper presents the aspects of space-based power for the earth, the significance, the need and possible solutions and finds that Present energy-supply practices cannot continue indefinitely Economic development and a growing population will, by the middle of the next century, combine to require at least twice the energy we use today. Importation of solar energy from space could make up the shortfall in an environmentally-benign way. Initial studies and technology demonstrations have shown that space -based energy supplies are technologically feasible but not competitive yet with current state-of-art technologies. Paper presents Metal-Metal junction cavity structure solar cell, which theoretically promises to increase solar-electric conversion efficiency many folds.

REFERENCES

1.

W.C. Brown, "The history of power transmission by radio waves," IEEE Trans.Microwave Theory Techn., vol. 32, no. 9, pp. 1230-1242, Sept. 1984.

2. Advanced Concepts Office, NASA Headquarters, and Advanced Space Analysis Office, NASA LeRC, "Space solar power, an advanced concepts study project" in Proceedings of SSP Technical Interchange Meeting, Washington D.C., Sept. 19-20, 1995. 3. Terrestrial Energy Generation Based on Space Solar Power: A Feasible Concept or Fantasy Date: May 1416, 2007; MIT, Cambridge MA 4. Steve Oleson Advanced Electric Propulsion For Space Solar Power Satellites ,Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, August 1999. 5. http://www.spacefuture.org/archive/a_fresh_look_at_space_solar_power_new _architctures_conce pts_and_technologies.shtml 6. http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/articles/the-luna-ring-concept 7. http://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/japans-moonshot-21-billioninvested-in-space-based-solar-power.html 8. http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/library/index.html 9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power