Conference to boldly explore solar power

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Space, the final frontier – these are the voyages of scientific dreamers.

Their mission: to seek out new sources of clean power, to keep climate change in check, to boldly generate electricity where no electricity has ever been generated before.

Seriously.

For three days in September, the Ontario Science Centre will host a conference called the International Symposium on Solar Energy from Space.

Scientists, space engineers and technologists from around the world will try to coordinate a roadmap for building massive solar-power stations in space and beaming the electricity safely back down to Earth.

Bob McDonald, the affable host of CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks show has been named master of ceremonies of the event, sponsored by a not-for-profit group called SPACE Canada and which promises to attract attention from around the globe.

The idea of generating solar power in space has been gaining traction lately, no doubt because of the urgency of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in our atmosphere. Temperatures by the end of this century are now likely to rise twice what scientists predicted six years ago, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study published last week in the peer-reviewed Journal of Climate.

Preventing this warming will require "rapid and massive action," the scientists concluded. If you share the view of British theorist James Lovelock, who sees Earth as single organism, then you believe our efforts at combating climate change are futile.

Best, instead, to prepare for what's coming. Those scientists coming to Toronto in September, fortunately, are more optimistically opting for the massive action plan.

How rapid the plan would be... well, that's a different story.

Organizers expect that about 100 technical papers will be presented at the Toronto conference, and preliminary results of a nearly completed International Academy of Astronautics study will also be shared.

That study, nearly two years in the making, promises to raise the profile of space-based solar generation as a solution to our energy woes.

The concept has been around for decades. Some envision huge fields of solar photovoltaic panels floating in an orbital slot and always facing the sun.

The space-based systems would collect the solar energy 24-hours a day and beam it down by microwave to large collection fields strategically placed around the planet.

No clouds. No night. Just a continuous blast of sunlight.

Others see the moon as an ally. The idea is that the moon is plastered with solar panels and the energy is beamed back Earth in a similar fashion.

The difference here is that, over time, solar-powered manufacturing plants could be set up on the moon to make solar panels from the silicon and other metals found on the lunar surface.

If you think this is lunacy, consider that the National Security Space Office, which reports to the U.S. Department of Defense, put out a report in late 2007 that concluded "the technical feasibility of the concept has never been better and all the science and technology development vectors appear to indicate that there is a credible potential."

It has proposed building a 10-megawatt pilot solar station to demonstrate it can be done and to spur private investment in commercial ventures.

Apparently the Canadian space agency is interested in the idea.

Meanwhile, California's Pacific Gas & Electric, one of the largest utilities in the United States, caused quite the chatter last month when it announced a deal to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity from a start-up called Solaren Corp., which plans to build a space-based solar generation station that will start beaming power down to Earth in 2016.

The news was widely criticized as a publicity stunt, given that the utility isn't taking any risk by saying it will merely buy the power if it's available.

If Solaren never delivers, no money will ever exchange hands. It's like telling your kid you'll pay him $1 million if he can bend a spoon with his mind.

The conference this September in Toronto is certain to prove mentally stimulating, and there will no doubt be a lot of attempted spoon-bending going on.