Kalam proposes 'nano energy packs' for energy from space

Chennai, Jan 9: Pitching for exploiting tremendous energy available from the Sun, former President A P J Abdul Kalam today proposed 'nano energy packs' for transmitting energy collected by space-based power plants to the earth.

"The sun radiates about 10 trillion times, which human consumes across the world today. If you are able to extract a small portion of this energy from the sun, it will be sufficent to secure the energy demands of our future," he told the 20th National Laser Symposium at Anna University here.

Explaining the limitations of the surface-based solar power plant, Kalam said space-based solar power has many advantages over traditional terrestrial based solar power plants and so was "far more effective, in their efficiency, in power generation than the land-based system."

"First, the level of solar irradiation is about 1.4 times in extra-terrestrial level than at the surface of the earth. Second, in case of the surface-based solar power plant, the panel can collect solar power for only six to eight hours a day, whereas, in space-based solar pwoer plant, the collection can be 24 hours. Also, these are not affected by weather conditions," he said.

The energy collected by space-based plant can be transmitted to earth either by microwave or technologies similar to that of laser technology, he said.

"One way to increase safety and improve the efficiency would be the evolution of nano energy packs, which I am proposing...These nano energy packs may contain materials hitherto unknown, but would store energy through reversible chemical reaction or electrical reaction (and), when brought back to the earth can deliver energy," he said.

The sysmposium, sponsored by Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences of the Department of Atomic Energy in collaboration with Indian Laser Association, will cover recent developments in the filed of physics, technology and application of laser.

Earlier, Kalam inaugurated the Anna University - BCT Kalam Centre of Excellence set up by Bahwan CyberTek in collaboration with the Ramanujan Computing Centre of Anna University.

PTI