Although collecting natural forms of energy such as solar, wind, and water are common on Earth, a Japanese company has introduced the idea of building solar power cells on the moon to provide clean energy to the earth. Shimizu Corporation wants to build a solar strip across the Lunar equator that equals out to 11,000 kilometers wide. Their goal is to generate a constant stream of energy from the Moon’s equator. The Lunar equator receives a continuous stream of exposure from the Sun, and would beam energy to the Earth in the form of microwaves and lasers.
The company believes that the Earth will consume gigatons of oil in the next few decades. With constant clean energy, the company dreams of achieving a clean energy society that fulfills all of our energy needs. They advertise that the lunar surface achieves 24/7 continuous power generation and eliminates inefficiency due to bad weather.
Although the idea of such advanced technology sounds unbelievable, the project has a goal of beginning as early as 2035, and is a multi-phase project spread out over the course of 30 years. The project’s construction materials would consist of lunar concrete, ceramics, and other materials created by extracting cementing material and using solar-heat treatment. The futuristic concept consist of using remote-controlled robots to lay out the concrete and level the ground. Cables underneath the strip could transmit energy to transmission stations on the near side of the moon.
The company claims their planned system would be able to beam up to 13,000 terawatts 24/7 by sending the power to microwave power transmission antennas and converting the energy to DC electricity. Although the plan does seem kind of ludicrous, just the fact that ideas such as this are being proposed really does give us an insight into what the future is looking like. Shimizu Corporation is one of the largest architectural, engineering and general contracting firms and is one of the top 20 contractors in the world. I hope to see any form of solution to our energy crisis in my life time, and this would surely be an interesting one.