UNLIMITED FREE ENERGY: from Space...

On the surface, this makes much more sense than decimating still more land/habitat/greeen areas/ocean bottoms/species for increased energy production. So far each new technology we try has a fatal flaw associated with it. This might be different. What are the drawbacks, if any? What risks might the microwave beam pose?Please keep us posted on updates, pros, cons and comments on this.Thanks.

All satellites use a microwave beam to transmit from space. Every live event broadcast on television uses them. The biggest drawback is that they are line of sight, which means there has to be a clear path between the two points; like when your cable or satellite dish goes out during a really bad storm, the line of sight is interrupted.

The biggest drawback is that anything passing through the microwave beam would probably get fried... (most microwave ovens use a kilowatt - and you wouldn't want to be caught inside a MW oven - you can imagine what a gigawatt would do...) My guess is that precautions can and will be taken to keep people from being anywhere near the beam - as for wildlife, I'm not sure what they're doing - I'll see what I can find out...

Do you know in what time-frame the one gigawatt will be transmitted? Hourly, yearly?? And, I am assuming the microwave beam from this would be significantly different than for a TV signal, if nothing else much stronger?? hence my query as to safety (for all, wildlife, people, plants, eveything.) Transmission towers for satelite TV etc are believed to cause cancer and neurological disorders in humans -- and therefore, undoubtedly, in non human life as well. But I am not so well-versed in this field. If the energy can be transmitted safely, it sounds like an exciting option.Thanks in advance for digging up more info! I've lately been thinking that an off-planet energy generator would be possibly the best answer, and now I have a chance to find out, lol.Cathy

Hi Cathy, I've done a little more research on the issue of safety and found a few interesting things... The idea of transmitting power via microwave has been around for a long time and a lot of research has been done.. The main concern, that anything straying into the beams path would be incinerated has shown to not be a concern - as long as the system is correctly designed. Injury to wildlife (particularly birds) has been a big enough concern that experiments with "deliberate" radiation have been done and have shown no negative effects (even over multiple generations)A few other things that came up while "researching" were the differences in collecting solar power in space vs here on earth - the atmosphere, clouds, etc reduce the amount of energy that can be collected here on earth - in space you collect 137% of what you get here on earth and of course in space you're collecting 24 hours a day versus 12 hours on earth...Another point that was brought up was if the "space elevator" were available, getting the equipment into space would be far less costly PLUS the possibility of a conduit to send power back to earth would eliminate microwave transmission altogether... (something to think about...)

The microwave beams used for transmission have been around since before the microwave oven. I remember working at a TV station in the 70's and they used it the transmit live feeds.

There have been microwave transmitters in the Four Corners area since the late 1940's.

What are they transmitting? Power? Communications or ???

instgtr, thanks for looking into it more. This is something I'll be following closely.Wouldn't it be fantastic if we can find a solution that is kind to humans, the planet, and all life on Earth?

Theoretically, it's what caused the UFO crashes at Roswell, and at Aztec, about 6 mos later.

Radar... that's why the called the first microwave ovens, "radar ranges".

Sounds interesting. Japan is always on top of technology, and I wouldn't be surprised if they come up with a solution to the whole energy crisis. This seems like a big breakthrough, but aren't there some serious health risks associated with microwaves?

Yes, there are serious risks associated with microwaves only if people stop placing kittens in them.

We need technology like these! Great!