In order to solve energy crunch

Prof. David Criswell of the University of Houston's Institute for Space Systems said that lunar power plants that capture the sun's rays and send them on to Earth as concentrated microwave beams could provide inexpensive, abundant and stable energy for the Earth's growing population.

"This would be energy on a global scale," Criswell said in a briefing at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Fransisco.

With some 85 percent of overall energy now produced by fossil fuels -- blamed for producing the greenhouse gases many scientists believe are behind global warming -- researchers say new methods must be found to generate energy if world economic growth is to continue in a healthy environment.

According to Criswell, the moon is an obvious choice for new power production facilities that would feature none of the pollution or nuclear waste of earthbound plants. His plan involves setting up solar panels at numerous new lunar installations to collect the sun's rays. This energy could then be converted into a microwave beam and sent back to "rectennas" on Earth, where it would be easily converted into electricity that could be plugged into the power grid.

The microwave energy beam, which could pass through rain and clouds, would have the intensity of about 20 percent of noontime sunlight and would be perfectly safe with only a slight problem of local radio interference, he said.

Criswell said the bulk of his lunar power plants could be easily constructed from materials already found on the moon, and that they were technologically simple enough to wire up quickly.

Criswell estimates that it would cost about $9 billion to get a small working prototype of his lunar power plant up and running on the moon. Once it has proven that it works, a further investment of about $50 billion could build the entire system -- and break even in about five years.

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Khorsheed.com - Jan 2002