China Plans To Build The World's First Solar Power Station In Space
China is planning to build the world’s first solar power station in space to provide “inexhaustible clean energy” according to a story in Science and Technology Daily, the official newspaper of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology. They claim to be already testing the technology and intend to build the station by 2050. Xie Gengxin, deputy head of the Chongqing Collaborative Innovation Research Institute for Civil-Military Integration in Southwestern China, told the China Daily newspaper that a testing facility in Chongqing’s Bishan district is being built that will be used to test the theoretical viability of a space-based solar power station. The 33 acre test facility will develop space transmission technologies while studying the effect of microwaves beamed back to Earth on living organisms. The initial investment of 100 million yuan ($15 million) will be made by the Bishan district government and construction could take up to two years, but once it begins operati