China is working on a big, exciting project: building a huge solar farm in space! This solar farm will be as wide as 1 kilometre and will float in space, collecting energy from the sun to send back to Earth.
It’s like putting a giant solar panel up in the sky, where it can always face the sun. Unlike the ones on Earth, this space solar farm can work all the time because there are no clouds or nighttime in space. Scientists say it will collect energy 10 times better than solar panels on the ground.
To put it in orbit, China plans to use powerful rockets called Long March-9. Once the solar farm is in the right spot, about 36,000 kilometres above Earth, it will stay in one place and send the energy back to Earth using special microwaves, South China Morning Post report.
Chinese engineer Long Lehao said this project is as big and important as the Three Gorges Dam, which is the world’s largest hydroelectric dam. Just like the dam produces a lot of power from water, this solar farm will produce lots of power from the sun.
Construction started in 2019, and when finished, it will collect as much energy in a year as all the oil we get from Earth. This is a big step toward cleaner energy and protecting our planet!
China’s project shows how creative and powerful solar energy can be. It’s an exciting idea for the future of energy!
