Exclusive
After Years of Waiting, Noel Tata Presides Unchallenged over India’s Biggest Business After Years of Waiting, Noel Tata Presides Unchallenged over India’s Biggest Business Despite years of confiscations, the Met still holds hundreds of pieces linked to alleged trafficking and looting figures Despite years of confiscations, the Met still holds hundreds of pieces linked to alleged trafficking and looting figures Ex-Evergrande Boss Hui Ka Yan gets Life in Prison Ex-Evergrande Boss Hui Ka Yan gets Life in Prison
Current Affairs

China reveals military capabilities in new space solar power plant design

A senior Chinese scientist has outlined the potential military applications of space-based solar power technology, offering a rare glimpse into how energy beamed from orbit…

By Samantha Johnson / April 5, 2026

Duan Baoyan, a leading architect of China’s “Zhuri” space solar power initiative, wrote in a paper published in Scientia Sinica Informationis last month, that his team had revamped the design of the giant orbital infrastructure.

In addition to energy transmission, the new system was required to support a wide range of tasks “such as communication, navigation, reconnaissance, interference and remote control”, he said.

Advertisement

Duan, a professor of electromechanical engineering at Xidian University in Xian and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also stressed the need for extremely narrow, precisely steerable microwave beams to deliver energy from space to the ground over long distances.

While designed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of wireless power transmission, these capabilities could, in principle, enable targeted signal transmission, including potential applications such as jamming or securing military communications.

Advertisement

China is one of the world’s leading countries developing space-based solar power. Unlike solar panels on the ground, which are limited by weather, seasons and the day-night cycle, space-based systems can collect sunlight almost continuously.

The energy is converted into electricity in orbit, transmitted as a microwave beam to the ground, and then converted back into power by receiving antennas on Earth.

Don't Miss: