Solar panels in space could send power to Earth 24/7
STORY: A UK start-up says it's figured out a way to generate cheap and reliable energy 24 hours a day throughout the year.
The concept requires solar panels like those used on Earth - but in orbit.
They would harvest sunlight, turn it into electricity, convert that into microwaves... and then beam it to a station connected to the local grid.
The company is called Space Solar. Martin Soltau is its co-founder.
“It's an incredibly capable future clean energy technology and this is about very large satellites high above the Earth, harvesting the abundant solar energy, converting that to microwaves and beaming it to Earth. And in this way, we can get gigawatt-scale continuous power, day and night and through all seasons and weather. This is what we need for our future clean energy mix.”
This small-scale demonstration is called Harrier.
The company says it shows the ability to steer a microwave beam from a geostationary satellite.
As it revolves, it is continually pointing at the sun – as it will have to do in space – as well as the beam’s target on Earth.
SOLTAU: “Harrier is doing two things. It's demonstrating for the very first time, the ability to steer a microwave beam right through 360 degrees and with a continuous reliable beam and secondly, it’s demonstrating the control of the system.”
The space-based solar power concept is called CASSIOPeiA.
Soltau says the novel technology has no moving parts, which removes a major source of weight and cost.
“The cost of these systems in terms of the cost of the electricity they can produce could be very comparable to wind and solar now and substantially less than nuclear. And the reason for that is that they provide huge yield." // "If you put a solar panel into space it generates about 13 times the amount of energy that that same panel does on Earth and this really underpins the good economics of space-based solar power.”
