New | China sets up laboratory to research building solar power station in space

China has started laboratory research to develop a solar power station in high orbit to beam potentially huge amounts of energy back to earth.

Tests to develop technology for the station are underway at a ground laboratory in Beijing, the Space and Technology Daily reported, a newspaper run by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The article quoted Zhang Bonan, the chief designer of manned space vehicles at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, as saying that work had begun on the lab project.

READ MORE: China’s second space lab to go into orbit this year as part of permanent manned space station by 2022

The plan envisages putting a space station with a huge solar array in orbit about 35,000 km from earth.

A solar power station would potentially be able to produce huge amounts of energy as it directly receives sunlight without filtering from the earth’s atmosphere and it could operate 24 hours a day.

The laboratory leading the project at the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing was named after Qian Xuesen, the father of China’s missile and space technology programme, Zhang was quoted as saying.

China’s solar power project in space has been largely confined to designs on paper, according to previous reports, but the latest remarks by the senior space official suggest it has moved into a higher phase of development.