Eden.fm

DailyTech – International Space Updates, September 2009.

Japanese companies Mitsubishi and IHI have agreed to join a $21 billion project that aims to create a solar-power generator in space that can send electricity back to Earth.

“It sounds like a science-fiction cartoon, but solar power generation in space may be a significant alternative energy source in the century ahead as fossil fuel disappears,” said Kensuke Kanekiyo, Institute of Energy Economics director told Bloomberg.

The power generator is a 1-gigawatt project that will use four square kilometers of solar panels, though it isn’t expected to be fully functional for 30 years.