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Mitsubishi Plans On Sending Down Solar Power From Space

On Friday, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced that it had successfully transmitted 10 kilowatts of electricity wirelessly over a distance of 500 meters by using microwaves. This was achieved as part of a project involving space solar power systems that aims to harvest the sun’s energy from satellites to beam back down to Earth. Imagine huge solar plants in space beaming down electricity endlessly to any location on the globe. Consider our minds sufficiently blown.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries works with Japan Space Systems on this futuristic project with the help of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. Although developed for sending electricity from solar plants 36,000 kilometers above Earth, the technology could also be used in wind turbines, making them presumably cheaper to install and expanding the range of areas in which they can be built.

How is this car related? The ability to transmit electricity from space to anywhere on the globe has some serious implications for the feasibility of electric cars. If the technology worked out on a large scale, your EV would no longer need to be plugged into a charger and could be taken to the most remote locations imaginable. It’s also a very sustainable source of power, reducing the need to burn fossil fuels. Hopefully beaming down microwaves and lasers from space doesn’t fry our brains or turn America’s vast fields of maize into popcorn.