China already has the world's largest hydroelectric station and solar farm to meet its sustainable energy needs. With the record on Earth already successfully held, China now wants to build the world's largest solar power station in space to provide uninterrupted power.
According to a report by SCMP, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) plan to build a solar power station at an altitude of 36,000 km above the Earth's surface. The 1-kilometer-long solar panels will generate power that will then be radiated back to Earth. According to calculations, the amount of electricity generated per year is equivalent to the amount of oil extracted from the Earth.
Although the idea of building a space solar power station here has begun to be considered, the technology to realize it is not yet fully available. In an announcement made in 2022, China felt that construction could be done by 2028. China still needs a rocket that can send heavy cargo into orbit and then install it in space. So far, China has built a space station using several modules that took about 18 months to complete.
In 2022, China successfully tested transmitting electricity generated by solar panels back to Earth using microwaves. In addition to China, the European Union, Japan and the United States also have similar plans without any detailed plans being announced.
Not stopping there, another larger hydroelectric dam will be built by China in Tibet. It will be built on the Yarlung Zangbo River (also known as the Brahmaputra River) with the capacity to produce 300 billion kWh of electricity per year. This is more than three times the output of 88.2 billion kWh per year generated by the Three Gorges Dam.