📌 TOPINDIATOURS Update ai: UK study backs offshore wind sites as receivers for spa

The UK is taking an ambitious step towards space-based solar power after a new government study found that solar farms could deliver clean electricity directly to the national grid and help the country meet net-zero targets.

The report, carried out by Frazer-Nash Consultancy, a systems engineering and technology company, was published in February 2026. It evaluates the feasibility of small-scale space-based solar power (SBSP) demonstration projects.

Released by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the study suggests installing satellite receivers, commonly known as rectennas, within existing offshore wind farms.

This would allow them to use the same grid connections already in place at those sites. The rectennas would receive microwave beams transmitted from satellites in geostationary orbit and convert them directly into grid-ready electricity.

Solar power from space

Space-based solar power (SBSP) is the concept of collecting solar power in outer space with satellites and delivering it to Earth. Its benefits include greater energy capture without atmospheric losses, near-continuous sunlight, as well as optimal sun-facing orientation.

This makes space an exceptional environment for harvesting solar power. What’s more, an orbital power plant could generate up to 13 times more energy than an identical installation on Earth.

SBSP can solve intermittency, an issue that even the UK’s rapidly expanding wind and solar industries cannot fully escape. As per the study, a single space-based solar platform could generate up to two gigawatts (GW) of electricity.

This is roughly equivalent to a large conventional nuclear reactor which is capable of delivering reliable, around-the-clock power 24 hours a day. The technology can operate in all kinds of weather.

A rectenna on Earth would convert the microwaves back into electricity, feeding it directly into high-voltage infrastructure. At the same time offshore wind farms are already equipped with substations and export cables. They could serve as natural landing sites for these orbital power links.

Unlimited grid power

According to the report, although upfront costs remain high, targeted investment and policy support today could allow small-scale space-based solar power (SBSP) to become cost-competitive with other power sources by 2040.

“However, without prior de-risking, the scale of the upfront investment required for the first large-scale system may deter investors, making it more difficult to unlock the full benefits of SBSP,” the report stated.

The report noted that large-scale rectennas could have environmental and visual impacts, and require extensive assessment before deployment. “Small-scale SBSP has the potential to support a pathway to net zero by de-risking the pathway to a large-scale system, thereby reducing barriers to investment,” the study said.

Launch costs also remain a major factor, as tens of thousands of lightweight solar panels would need to be placed in orbit to build a full-size system. However, the cost of launch has dropped dramatically over the past decade, driven by reusable rockets and growing commercial competition.

DESNZ concluded that with early investment, SBSP could reach grid-competitive prices, between (GBP 87) USD 118/MWh and (GBP 129) USD 175/MWh by 2040.

“To further develop the case for small-scale SBSP, both public and private sector support will be needed to help industry resolve and overcome technical barriers,” the report suggested.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 TOPINDIATOURS Update ai: Site of Elementary School Was Sprayed With Radioactive

Nearly 500 elementary school children in Texas play on fields where a whistleblower says he once spread tons of radioactive fracking waste — a noxious hell-brew he believes melted the bones in his own jaw.

Lee Oldham is a 52-year-old former waste disposal worker from Cleburne, Texas, on the southern outskirts of Dallas-Fort Worth. In an interview with Texas-based publication the Barbed Wire, Oldham detailed how he went from waste handler to corporate whistleblower, and the horrifying apathy of state politicians that led him there.

Since the fracking boom of the 2000s, Oldham made his living dumping drilling mud and contaminated fracking dirt into open fields across North Texas. Though the Texas state oil and gas regulator technically forbade companies from dumping their sludge wherever they pleased, a 2016 audit found the regulator offered “little deterrent effect” to prevent it.

Instead of disposing of the fracking sludge the official way — which involved extra paperwork, expensive land designations, and tons of extra man-hours — Oldham’s company, like many others, chose to work it into empty fields.

“The whole thing operated on the honor system,” Oldham told the Barbed Wire. “And the only honor you can bank on in the oil and gas industry is there ain’t nothing honorable being done.”

In total, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is now host to somewhere between 20 and 60 million tons of hazardous waste, dredged up by the 21,000 oil and gas wells that call the place home. As fracking involves blasting through shale teeming with naturally toxic materials to find oil and gas, that waste is surely brimming with a noxious potpourri of heavy metals and radionuclides, as well as PFAS introduced during the drilling process.

As Oldham’s medical records, which were viewed by Barbed Wire show, the 52-year-old’s jaw bone has become “seriously degraded” following his stint in the oil-waste trade. His vertebrae had also broken down, another telltale sign of radiation poisoning.

While the waste sites would be dangerous enough as tracts of farmland — plenty of which have sprouted up on former dumping grounds — one particular site Oldham showed Barbed Wire is located under a brand-new suburban development. Called “Silo Mills,” the community hosts some 2,500 homes just 30 minutes away from downtown Fort Worth.

It also boasts Pleasant View Elementary School, a Pre-K to 5th grade school building built on a field where Oldham and his co-workers used to dump fracking waste.

Oldham left his previous employer after he says his questions about radioactive waste made him a target for retaliation. He has now started sounding the alarm on Facebook, drawing the attention of local law enforcement.

Whether the authorities uncover a verifiable public health threat to the new town of Silo Mills remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: with radioactive waste in play, it’ll be thousands of years before the area surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth fully recovers from the fracking boom.

More on radioactivity: Worker Falls Into Nuclear Reactor, Drinks a Little “Cavity Water”

The post Site of Elementary School Was Sprayed With Radioactive Fracking Waste, Worker Warns appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com