Scientists at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel have come up with a way to power oxygen factories on the moon without using storage. He wrote about his findings in “Uninterrupted photovoltaic power for lunar colonisation without the need for storage,” which was just published in Renewable Energy.
According to the study, 10 MW of solar capacity is needed to power the oxygen factories all the time. The researcher said it would be possible to put PV arrays around a 360-degree latitudinal ring close to one of the moon’s poles, with long transmission lines carrying the electricity to the oxygen plants. There would be no shading between PV arrays, and both static vertical PV arrays and arrays mounted on single-axis vertical trackers could be used as mounting structures.
The strategy takes advantage of the fact that the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere, that its polar axis tilts very little with respect to the ecliptic plane, that conditions on the moon are good for low-mass, low-cost transmission lines, and that the moon’s diameter is much smaller than that of Earth.
The hardest part of setting up colonies on the moon is making sure that factories that make oxygen always have power. Using nuclear energy or solar energy combined with storage has been looked at as a good idea, but new research shows that using solar energy without storage could be the most effective way to go.
The researcher said, “My solution has a specific mass that is much lower than any other option so far. It is a record low kg/kW, which is a key figure for affordable and possible lunar installations, since launch and installation costs are currently more than $1,000,000/kg.” “Our new plan is better than solar plus batteries by more than 100 times.” It is also at least 6 times better than the solution being considered by NASA, which is to use nuclear reactors to power turbines and generators.
NASA might change its plan to use nuclear energy to power lunar colonies and use solar energy instead.
