Japan eyes solar station in space by 2030

IT MAY sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan’s space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collectsolar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams ormicrowaves.

The government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energyinto reality in coming decades.

With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oilimports, Japan has long been a leader in solar and other renewable energies and this year set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.