Avoid Blackouts?Tap into Moon Energy

“Commercial power from the Moon could have avoided the blackout ?,” says space researcher David Criswell. “Each receiver on Earth would be fed independently from the Moon. If you need more or less power you just adjust the beams.”

Robert Roy Britt writes in space.com that we could plant receivers on the moon that point towards the sun, then beam the microwaves down to Earth, where they would be converted to electricity.

Moon energy would solve the problems of old, polluting power generating plants and scary, out-of-date nuclear power plants. However, the electricity would still travel to individual cities via the same antiquated power grids, which were the reason the blackout spread so far. NASA’s Molly Macauley says, “We’re still going to be susceptible to transmission and distribution problems,” which are “the most vulnerable to outages or even terrorist attacks.”

The biggest problem would be all the special receivers that would be needed. We couldn’t use our current antennas, but would have to build broad, translucent tent-like structures to receive the microwaves and convert them to electricity, and we’d need lots of them, placed near the areas where the energy would be used. Supplying New York City would require a tent of about 15 square miles.

Macauley says, “There is tremendous opposition to siting cell towers” in some communities. “There’s going to be vociferous opposition to these localized power planets.”

Criswell hopes the technology is in place in time for third-world countries to adopt it as they build their first extensive power grids, so they can avoid the interim stage of polluting power plants. He says, “You could power the entire world by 2050, and that world would be prosperous.”

Steven Aftergood, of the Federation of American Scientists, says, “There is this huge engine of power production out there called the Sun. We have yet to take full advantage of it.”

Some people claim there are ETs on the moon. Let’s hope they’re willing to share their energy source.

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