Power Plant Types: Learn About Microwave Power Plants

[dragoneye776]

I heard of several kinds of power plants, and then I came upon microwave power plants. I know what microwaves are, but how do they generate power? Would someone explain to me how or give me a link to somewhere?

 

[daniel_i_l]

Microwaves can be used to push electrons through wire - AKA electricity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_power_transmission

 

[Danger]

Welcome to PF, Dragoneye. As Daniel's link shows, microwaves are not used to generate electricity. That would be worse than stupid, since you need more energy to create them than you could generate with them. Instead, they can be used to transmit that energy from the generator to the user grid. In normal applications, that isn't tremendously useful, but it holds enormous significance for satellite solar generators.

 

[cesiumfrog]

Too much Sim City...

 

[Danger]