[LINK] Five Technologies That Could Change Everything

David Lochrin dlochrin at d2.net.au
Thu Oct 22 11:50:58 AEDT 2009


On Monday 19 October 2009 17:04, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> OCTOBER 19, 2009  The Wall Street Journal Cover Story By MICHAEL TOTTY 
> <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703746604574461342682276898.html>

> The technology may sound like science fiction, but it's simple:  
> Solar panels in orbit about 22,000 miles up beam energy in the form 
> of microwaves to earth, where it's turned into electricity and plugged 
> into the grid. (The low-powered beams are considered safe.) A ground 
> receiving station a mile in diameter could deliver about 1,000 megawatts
> - enough to power on average about 1,000 U.S. homes.

The "low powered beams" are not considered safe at all, except maybe by the proponents.  If all the energy could be kept tightly focussed on the ground antenna, the energy density over 1 sq.mile would be 49 milli-watts/sq.cm. according to my calculation.

This is 245 times the maximum safe level set by the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection):
       10 to 400 MHz              0.20
       400 to 2,000 MHz           f/2000
       2 to 300 GHz               1.0

These figures are taken from their comprehensive review of the subject in October 1997 - see http://www.icnirp.net/documents/emfgdl.pdf - and Table 7 "Reference levels for general public exposure to time-varying electric and magnetic fields (unperturbed rms values)".

Of course atmospheric and electrical turbulence in the atmosphere would probably spray the radiation all over the place, and power would drop dramatically during rain.  Unfortunately, recommended maximum safe levels always seem to go down, and the health risk which always seems to surface first in any non-commercial study is Childhood Leukemia.

David



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