World-first space solar farm successfully prototyped

The project’s aim is to power over a million homes by the 2030s, with a mile-wide complex of mirrors and solar panels orbiting 22,000 miles above the planet.

According to the consortium of researchers, solar panels capture 13 times more energy in space than on Earth because the light intensity is higher and there's no atmosphere, despite clouds or nightfall.

Even though some energy would be lost by the time it is beamed back to Earth and connected to the electricity grid, the researchers said that it would still far outstrip solar generation on the ground.

Currently, nuclear energy and gas turbines provide the baseload for the grid but produce radioactive waste or carbon dioxide respectively. Space-based solar power is expected to provide baseload power but at a cost similar to intermittent renewables, as well as produce power constantly.

The researchers successfully developed the prototype to demonstrate the technology on Earth in March, 2024. The technology was demonstrated at Queen's University Belfast (QUB), with a wireless beam successfully ‘steered’ across a lab to turn on a light.