Japanese Engineering Groups Join Mega Space Solar Project.

Japanese Engineering Groups Join Mega Space Solar Project.

Bloomberg News (9/1, Sato, Okada) reports, "Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and IHI Corp. will join a 2 trillion yen ($21 billion) Japanese project intending to build a giant solar-power generator in space within three decades and beam electricity to earth." According to Japanese trade ministry, "a research group representing 16 companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., will spend four years developing technology to send electricity without cables in the form of microwaves." Kensuke Kanekiyo, managing director of the Institute of Energy Economics, a government research body, said, "It sounds like a science-fiction cartoon, but solar power generation in space may be a significant alternative energy source in the century ahead as fossil fueldisappears." A document prepared by the trade ministry in August said that " Japan is developing the technology for the 1-gigawatt solar station, fitted with four square kilometers of solar panels, and hopes to have it running in three decades."