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Rocket expert and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) Long Lehao has revealed an ambitious plan to use super-heavy rockets to build solar power plants in space. Space power plants will be able to collect solar energy 24 hours a day and then transmit it to Earth, providing uninterrupted power supply.
According to the scientist, Chinese specialists are working on this "unbelievable" project, which is the installation of a solar panel one kilometer wide. To send such a device into Earth orbit, a new-generation reusable launch vehicle "Changzheng-9" (Long March-9) will be needed. With its help, they are going to build a solar power plant in space.
Long Lehao said that this project is as important as the construction of the world's largest Three Gorges hydroelectric power plant in the central part of China. Its power generation capacity is approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours per year.
