<div dir="auto"><div>Their blog hasn't been updated since 2023, their social media longer. In those situations with no recent news, it is often the case that those involved have had to focus on other responsibilities, most often other work to pay the bills, leaving the project effectively abandoned. Luck (those other circumstances getting resolved), or a substantial infusion of capital, can bring it back.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">One's best hope to resurrect it is to contact the owner and try setting up a trial oneself, acknowledging that the owner won't have much time to help right now. Alas, this usually takes a lot more time, energy, and specialized knowledge than one has available.</div><div dir="auto"><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container" dir="auto"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Jan 9, 2025, 3:22 PM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div>
<font size="4">StratoSolar (Stratospheric (20km) tethered
photovoltaic aerostats with built-in kinetic energy storage)</font><br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.stratosolar.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">http://www.stratosolar.com/</a><br>
<br>
This is something that I would have expected some people on this
list to know about, and have an opinion on, but I don't see any
posts about it for at least the last three years.<br>
<br>
Not sure if the project has stalled for some reason, but does anyone
know anything about it? It seems an excellent idea to me, but
there's no recent blog activity or news on their site. Last blog
entry was 2023/12/16. No hint of even a trial, which surprises me.<br>
<br>
It seems to be a lot cheaper and more efficient than space-based
solar power, would work well at any latitude and all day long, being
above the clouds, and is easily scaleable. The biggest challenge, I
think, would be the tethers, but 20km of vertical cable is not a
problem for current technology. The kinetic storage is a brilliant
idea, I thought, and neatly solves one of the biggest problems that
all solar power systems have.<br>
<br>
Please have a look at the site, and let us know what your thoughts
are. Is there some fundamental problem that they missed? I can't
think of any, except possibly failing to get financial backing, or
political opposition.<br>
<br>
Obviously this idea won't wash in the US, at least for the next four
years, but why hasn't it already gained some traction?<br>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Ben</pre>
</div>
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</blockquote></div></div></div>