Energy and the world
A long time ago, before I did a complete shift in my career, I was an engineer specializing in alternative energy sources. I no longer follow that industry as closely as I used to, but it's still a topic I am interested in.
Energy moves the world, and our need for it will not stop increasing. We are seeing it now with the rise of AI and the "thirsty" machines that are used to train it.
As oil becomes more scarce and more targeted by environmental policies, it's natural that the world starts looking at other sources, such as solar power, which is already well established and doesn't have as bad a reputation as nuclear plants.
The challenges with solar power
Despite the recent advances in cheapness and efficiency of solar power, the technology still faces significant challenges and limitations. One of them is intermittent cloud cover, and the atmosphere absorbing most of the solar radiation before it even hits the ground.
It looks like our busy atmosphere is one of the biggest obstacles to more efficient solar power plants on the Earth's surface, so why don't we build them "above" the atmosphere instead?
That's exactly what China is planning to do.
China's solar power space station
Chinese scientists plan on building a giant solar power station in space to take advantage of the much stronger radiation there. The idea is to make a 0.6-mile-wide station that will beam continuous energy back to Earth as microwaves.
Continuous is a keyword here. One of the challenges of solar power that was not mentioned above is that you can't generate energy at night (even though there are alternatives to walk around that, they tend to be expensive and add more complexity to the project). In contrast, it's never night in space, so the station can keep capturing the Sun's energy uninterruptedly.
Building in space
Building large structures in space is not a new concept, which doesn't mean it is not highly challenging and expensive. The way to do this is to use very powerful rockets to transport components and building materials to a geostationary orbit above Earth.
In order to accomplish that, China is working on the development of the Long March-9 (CZ-9) reusable heavy-lift rocket, which will have a lift capacity of at least 150 tons (136 metric tons). These are the same rockets they plan to use to build their lunar research base by 2035.
Cost benefit
Such a huge undertaking wouldn't even be considered if the benefits were not worth the costs. This project has been dubbed "another Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth" in reference to the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, which is located in China and generates 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year.
The team behind the project claims that, when the project is fully operational, "The energy collected in one year would be equivalent to the total amount of oil that can be extracted from the Earth." That's definitely something.
Nuclear fusion
China also made the news recently because its nuclear fusion reactor prototype, often called "the artificial sun," maintained a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for 1066 seconds, setting a new world record and reaching a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius.
Nuclear fusion is a big deal because it "replicates" the process that happens in the Sun, which creates a significant amount of clean energy. The problem is that it currently takes an enormous amount of energy to stabilize the reactor, and therefore, the process is still net-negative in terms of energy generation.
The running joke around nuclear fusion is that the technology has been 10 years away from being viable for the last 50 years, but this new record is a small step towards the right direction.
Competition
While China might be the leading contestant in the energy race, it's not alone in it. Many other countries are pursuing or at least studying both space solar power plants and nuclear fusion - some of them are even collaborating with China. It's far too early to say which country or group of countries will emerge victorious, but China is definitely investing a lot of resources, hoping to take the edge.
Final thoughts
Energy is one of the most essential resources in modern society, if not the most. The race for clean, sustainable and reliable energy sources is heating up year after year, and many countries want to take the lead.
China has demonstrated its ambition and plans to lead the energy revolution, but does it have the resources and the expertise to make it happen?
It's still anyone's game at this point, so it will be interesting to watch these players' next move.