We have reported on some unusual solar photovoltaic panel projects in the past but this one probably takes some beating! You will recollect that many years ago the first man walked on the moon. Well, now a Japanese company are considering putting solar panels up their in space.
Shimizu Corporation are a large construction and civil engineering company and it is they that are considering placing solar panels on the surface of the moon. The panels would be situated around the equator of the moon so would cover a huge area measuring 11,000 kilometres long by up to 400 kilometres wide.
The project has been named The LUNA RING and the company would like to start work on it by 2035. It is expected that robots would be used in the construction process.
It is believed that there will be a reasonable amount of sun to generate as much as 13,000 terra watts of energy that will be transmitted back to Earth using microwave and radar. The energy would then be used to produce electricity for not only Japan but also the rest of the world.
Of course Japan has been taking a huge interest of late in alternative sources of energy following the nuclear disaster that took place in the country at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant back in March 2011. The country is expected to be the leading market for solar energy in 2013 moving ahead of Germany and China.
This is undoubtedly an incredibly huge project that, as far as we are aware, has never even come close to being matched anywhere on Earth, never mind in space. There is no doubt a considerable amount of preparation that will need to be conducted in the next few years and, perhaps, by the time 2035 comes along it may not sound as demanding as it presently does.
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