Wireless (remote) energy transmission

[Drax Reborn]

Hi everyone,

I was looking at the Dyson Sphere concept and a thought struck me, how would the energy collected by the Sphere be delivered to Earth?

As a battery retreival system with a shuttle would be too expensive and i know little of wireless way to transmit the energy.

 

Any help or guidance would be great.

[5614]

the dyson sphere is a very clever concept however would be quite hard to make a reality.

 

i suppose there are several options.

 

ideas

1) some kind of connection between the dyson sphere and the earth (a physical link)

2) energy beam... the energy collected powered one powerful light beam back to earth which was transferred into power on earth

3) battery collection ships

4) wireless... e.g magnetic fields as demonstrated in transformers

 

disadvantages

1) the earth rotates, a fixed wire could be a problem!

2) massive energy loss

3) cost, how much energy can get per 'battery' unit?

4) mega magnetic fields dont work too well with electronics + probably energy loss + i dont know if they work over distances that great

 

general: all natural light to the earth would be cut off... meaning no sun light, no light for crops to grow, no photosynthesis, no vitamins and healthy part of UV and IR that we take from the sun's light.

i really dont know the biological science of it, but sunlight is meant to be healthy for you (within a limit, after which you get sun burnt etc).

[swansont]

general: all natural light to the earth would be cut off... meaning no sun light' date=' no light for crops to grow, no photosynthesis, no vitamins and healthy part of UV and IR that we take from the sun's light.

[i']i really dont know the biological science of it, but sunlight is meant to be healthy for you (within a limit, after which you get sun burnt etc).[/i]

 

I thought that a Dyson sphere went around the star.

[Sayonara]

If you've built a Dyson sphere, there is no Earth.

 

The inner surface of the sphere occupies a shell whose circumference is described by the average orbit of the planet the sphere is replacing.

[Drax Reborn]

thanks for the options, i know that the direct link is imposible and that the shuttle collection system is expensive. Hence the idea of using a wireless energy transmission system.

 

Also the original design was more like a 'swarm' of satellites or a huge grid system. neither of which would completely block the light of a star.

[5614]

Also the original design was more like a 'swarm' of satellites or a huge grid system. neither of which would completely block the light of a star.

 

still it would block out a significant amount of sunlight and would probably have negative affects.

[Phi for All]

Drax & 5614, you're not paying attention to Sayo's post #5. A Dyson sphere starts out as a ring around a star. The huge surface of the ring takes the place of a need for any planets. Energy transmisiion is not a problem because you are living on the ring.

 

Eventually, the ring is built up into a sphere. But long before that, the surface of the ring is greater than all the surfaces of the system's planets put together.

 

still it would block out a significant amount of sunlight and would probably have negative affects.

On who? The planets outside the sphere are most likely uninhabitable.

[5614]

the thing is that if you look at this diagram...

 

it shows a dyson sphere, now if the energy from the sun is collected on the inner surface and we are living in the outter surface... therefore no light comes onto the outter surface of the ring.

 

it would be pitch black other than light from distant stars and artificial light.

[Phi for All]

now if the energy from the sun is collected on the inner surface and we are living in the outter surface...[/u']

There is your mistake. We live on the inner surface. (Edit) Not all of the surface is necessary for solar collection. Remember how incredibly vast it is.

[5614]

oh, in which case our selves and our bodies and our buildings will all block out the sun from reaching the ground....

 

presumably the ground would have to be there 'solar panels' or whatever they are to convert the energy from the sun to useable energy, so whatever we build onto the inner surface would reduce energy levels.

[5614]

and this site here:

http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/dysonFAQ.html#GRAV

is good about the gravity problems.

[Phi for All]

oh' date=' in which case our selves and our bodies and our buildings will all block out the sun from reaching the ground....

 

presumably the ground would have to be there 'solar panels' or whatever they are to convert the energy from the sun to useable energy, so whatever we build onto the inner surface would reduce energy levels.[/quote']Iirc, Earth has almost 800 million square miles of surface, while a Dyson Sphere encompassing Earth's orbital path would have over 300 million times more than that. I think huge sections could be used for energy farming without encroaching on populated areas.

[[Tycho?]]

Hi everyone' date='

I was looking at the Dyson Sphere concept and a thought struck me, how would the energy collected by the Sphere be delivered to Earth?

As a battery retreival system with a shuttle would be too expensive and i know little of wireless way to transmit the energy.

 

Any help or guidance would be great.[/quote']

 

Ha, you are aware that a dyson sphere is a sphere that completely surrounds a star right? If we were to make one of those in a few million years I dont think we would be using shuttles, and would probably have much more effiecient methods of storing and transporting energy.

[[Tycho?]]

You would not necessarly live on the inside of the sphere, it depends on how far away from the star you place it. If it is very close to the star so as to minimize the building materials, it may be too hot for life.

[Phi for All]

I think building the first one would necessitate living on it as well, first as a ringworld, then as a complete sphere. If we were sophisticated enough with the process after that, we could automate and build them robotically without the need to populate them, strictly for the energy potential.

 

The real question now is whether Drax Reborn would like his thread to be about Dyson Spheres or about stored energy transmission from space to Earth.

[Sayonara]

Living on the outside? Building it too close for it to be inhabitable?

 

Wtf?

[Drax Reborn]

The origin design was of several satellites orbiting around the host star in a swarm. It was then later developed into a ring design and then the complete shell design. I am asking about a method of energy transmission as that is the part of my project which i am having trouble with.

[Phi for All]

Is your project limited to available technology? Research into microwave transmission of energy is difficult because of current international treaties limiting that line of technology (if you can beam energy effectively from space, who on the planet would be safe?).

 

Umbilicals and space elevators are also theoretical at this point, but might prove to be a possibilty for efficient stored energy transmission. Here's a link I found: space elevator.

[syntax252]

I think the problem is one of solving the riddle of how to transmit energy via micro wave, or in how to convert micro waves into electricity.

 

Probably the latter would be preferred, because orditing solar cell farms could collect the electricity required to generate vast amounts of micro waves which could then be beamed to Earth to be recreated into electricity.

 

Even an efficiency in the single digits would be OK because of the vast potential of solar cells in orbit (both in their area as well as their collectivity potential because of the lack of any atmosphere.)

[Phi for All]

Even an efficiency in the single digits would be OK because of the vast potential of solar cells in orbit (both in their area as well as their collectivity potential because of the lack of any atmosphere.)

Really good point and I wish we would invest more into solar research. I think the main problem at this point is having no international coalition to work with it. When a single country, like the US, starts talking about beaming energy from space earthside, no one trusts us not to make military use of it.

[Drax Reborn]

yes my project is limited by the current technological level of the human race. However at this stage in my project politics is not an issue to be considered yet as a project on this scale would required vast resources. Also it is more a feasibility study of the concept and the numerous variations in the design. Hence the first question about the transmission of energy in the microwave frequencies.