In 2013, a Japanese engineering firm had an ambitious idea: construct a large ring of solar panels around the Moon, known as the Luna Ring, that would capture sunlight and send back almost unlimited energy to Earth. Imagine a giant illuminated circle orbiting the moon to provide electricity to us here on Earth. What is the future of energy on Earth, and why has Japan dreamed so big?

This is how Japan’s Luna Ring could redefine the future of renewable power

Japan’s vision for solar energy on the Moon is to create a long belt around its equator, approximately 6,800 miles long and hundreds of kilometers in width. This belt would be equipped with solar panels that collect sunlight and generate energy that would be sent back to Earth.

This idea demonstrates how people can come up with brave ideas that indeed can solve real problems, while also reminding us that brave thinking can come back to human sympathy lived within great ideas.

In its 2013 proposal, the Japanese firm proposed that the Luna Ring could someday transport around 13,000 terawatts of energy from the Moon to Earth, or, in some reports, it was cited in the region of 13 million gigawatts.

Understanding the mechanics behind how the Luna Ring would work

The idea is for an enormous band, around 68,000 miles long and hundreds of kilometers wide, situated around the Moon’s equator and covered in solar panels, like the floating solar islands powering Asia. These panels will be assembled by remotely operated robots, even robots that build using the lunar soil.

Once established, the solar panels would continue to receive sunshine, convert it to energy, and send it back to Earth with microwaves or lasers, an almost unlimited source of clean energy that could change the way we generate and consume electricity on Earth.

Harnessing the sun from orbit and beaming its power back to Earth

Once the solar belt has harvested sunlight, it would convert it into electricity and beam it back to Earth as microwaves or laser beams to collection stations. Everything between idea and reality, the Moon would signal a new era of transformation into a giant power station, beaming light and power back to Earth to keep tens of thousands of homes and cities illuminated.

How a daring idea from Japan is challenging the way we think about generating energy

If the Luna Ring became a reality, the world could eliminate (or at least, reduce) fossil fuels and move to a lunar power grid for solar energy instead of planning solar fields on Earth. The concept of powering your mobile phone, school, or city with energy from sunlight 384,000 km away captures your imagination.

However, the scale of such an unprecedented project means that installing it is surely many years away. Building on the surface of the Moon is complex, and we have to think about robotics, materials, lunar dust, power, safety across the Moon, international laws about the Moon, and the high cost of sending everything from Earth. The country suggested the idea back in 2013, and while we are on our way to realizing the dream, it is a long and interesting road.

Japan’s Luna Ring concept shifts the notion of “green energy” from the energy crisis on Earth to a solar ring on the Moon, indicating that perhaps the next great leap will come from space. Reality or aspiration, it heralds our imagination and capacity to dream together, our proclivity to explore, and our urge to re-envision our futures. Haunting also is the idea that imagination can be so powerful, like the strangest power idea of the decade, now rewriting history.