Whoa, this is really neat. Where do you envision the Warp Nacelles going? Possibly one below the centerline, and one above? Nevermind, I just read that it was impulse only. But, how does it get to the developing culture? I supposed it could be towed in by another ship...
An array or microwave power sats could be towed in a cargo pod and placed more easily that building a whole ship for the purpose, IMO. And that's not counting that the Federation usually doesn't intervene or make their prescence known to developing cultures in the first place if they can possibly help it. my .02
thanks well, if it had warp engines, it would most likely use antimatter, which would not only make it easily acquirable (they'd could steal it), a warp engine could put out more power than this would collect anyway.... , and once it's there, i probably won't be going to far... and if you look closely, those things on the top (and bottom) are just the side view of the panels, there's 3 sets on each side , 12 total so yeah, it would have to be towed.... I'm not sure about towing a ship at warp, but we've have seen it if I remember correctly... true, and that would have the benefit of being more versatile.... but then what about power transfer, less ships means less connections, but... that probably wouldn't be a problem... true, bit what if another culture interfered, took what they wanted and left the other culture for dead? or what if a culture, already aware of the Federation, had some kind of catastrophic failure to their energy production facilities and needed assistance, just for awhile.... it unlikely that they would be widely used, but they could be used in special situations, we already have solar panels, I would imagine that by the 23rd and 24th centuries, they'd be easily produced if one needed them, so it's a proposal... and I just wanted to put solar panels on a trek ship, ok!