The UK government has commissioned new research into space-based solar power (SBSP) systems using Solar Power Satellites as a sustainable energy source.
Video: Orbital model showing 2GW solar power satellite in a geosynchronous Laplace plane orbit. The satellite is visible to the sun for over 99.9% of the time throughout the year, offering 24/7 base load clean energy. (© Frazer-Nash Consultancy)
The satellites would collect solar energy, convert it into high frequency radio waves, and safely beam it back to ground-based receivers connected to the electricity power grid. Solar energy harvested in space offers the potential of an unlimited and constant zero carbon power source.
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First conjured by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1941, the concept is now being studied by several nations due to rapidly advancing lightweight solar panels and wireless power transmission technology. Together with lower cost commercial space launch, it is hoped that Solar Power Satellites could become a more feasible and economically viable sustainable energy solution.
Historically, the cost of rocket launches and the weight required for a project of this scale made the idea of space-based solar unfeasible. The emergence of privately-led space ventures has brought this cost down significantly in the last decade.
This latest study, led by Frazer-Nash Consultancy, will consider whether such a system could deliver affordable energy for consumers, and the engineering and technology that would be required to build it.
Video: Power beaming to rectenna. Orbital model showing microwave power beaming to a rectenna near the London Array offshore wind farm, offering ready grid connectivity (© Frazer-Nash Consultancy)
According to researchers, the biggest issues to overcome is assembling the satellites in orbit, something that has not yet been done at this scale.
Martin Soltau, Space Business manager at Frazer-Nash, described the need to explore new technologies offering clean and affordable energy for the nation as ‘vital.’
“Frazer-Nash is studying the leading international Solar Power Satellite designs, and we will be drawing up the engineering plan to deploy an operational SBSP system by 2050,” he said. “We are forming an expert panel, comprised of leading SBSP experts and space and energy organisations, to gain a range of industry views.”
According to Soltau, the consultancy will compare SBSP with other forms of renewable energy with the help of partner Oxford Economics, who he said will provide additional insight into the economic assessment of the system.
Is there any indication of cost? It just seems hopelessly expensive.
Of course it could never be used as a weapon, could it?
Lazard are reporting the LCOE for onshore wind and solar are now the same or cheaper than running conventional Gas and Nuclear (not including the capital cost), would be interesting to see the cost comparison.
https://cleantechnica.com/files/2020/11/Wind-Solar-Coal-Natural-Gas-LCOE.png
This sounds like at least 2 square km of solar collection, assuming 100% efficiency. Challenging ! Will the study compare the space solution with a few sq km of PV in each of two or three deserts around the world?
Not very good for global warming is it? Collecting extra solar radiation and directing it to the surface of the earth. What’s really needed is a system for sending energy from here out into space.
There is a very sensible report from UK Fires that points the way to carbon neutral using existing technologies, not pie-in-the-sky ones. Surely we should be putting our resources into those almost-guaranteed-to-work approaches rather than hoping against hope that something revolutionary will ride to the rescue.
I guess it was in about 1964 that saw an article in the New Scientist showing a microwave (magnetron) powered tethered helicopter; the power being received by an array of rectenna, below the helicopter.This I thought was a very good way of transmitting power.
However for transmitting the power from orbit I think that the diffraction optics places limits on the size of the transmitter and receiver.
“For example, the 1978 NASA study of solar power satellites required a 1-kilometre-diameter (0.62 mi) transmitting antenna and a 10-kilometre-diameter (6.2 mi) receiving rectenna for a microwave beam at 2.45 GHz (10cm)” (wiki on Wireless_power_transfer) – for a power 750 MW this gave power density of 1 mW/cm2 which corresponds to the safety levels.
However such large receiving areas could be costly to construct – with more than 10^10 rectenna
If my army needed a lot of power in a remote location that lasted day and night, I imagine this could be re-targeted. Then you might need far less diesel, far cheaper logistics. Whether or not it’s a weapon it probably would lead to the development of various technologies useful to military applications – rather like perhaps the ability to de-orbit “junk” which seems environmental and civilian until you start wondering if the “junk” might be an enemy’s working satellite.
You could use it as a warming device. I suppose that could be a weapon in the Sahara, but quite pleasant in a Siberian winter.
Each solar panel put in space generates about 4 times the energy of one on Earth, and doesn’t suffer from day/night or bad weather.
Given the projected launch costs of Star Ship, and the mass of some proposed designs, then it would seem viable from a launch cost perspective.
Solar power is an existing technology. This is just putting it somewhere more useful.
The energy frequency is the point here, high frequency microwaves rather than infra-red. If the energy is absorbed and performs work, it doesn’t spill into the environment to heat it up, or is my physics a bit rusty?
Your article correctly defines the problem is the very high cost of launch. Dr. James Powell, the inventor of superconducting magnetic levitation transport, et al proposed an internationally financed development of an Earth based Maglev launch system that accelerates a cargo carrying spacecraft to escape speed in a vacuum launch tube that releases the space craft at very high altitude mountaintop and propels it to geosynchronous orbit where it is positioned by small thruster rockets for release of a large area photovoltaic satellite envisioned as a thin film very large area solar cell array. The satellite would beam microwave energy to a rectenna field field on Earth that then converts the power for distribution on the grid. Launch cost is less than 1% of chemical rocket launch cost and projects generating electricity at 2 cents per Kilowatt Hour. This carefully detailed engineering design concept is described in several papers, and several books “Spaceship Earth, How Long Before We Crash” and “Silent Earth, Will Humans Give Up Fossil Fuels?” by James Powell and his colleagues. We believe that it could be used as a weapon and therefore elected to seek the creation of an international project. Our studies indicate that there are no other feasible means to provide the energy required by a world population of 10 Billion people. james.jordan@magneticglide.com
Hardly ‘Carbon Neutral’, just how many rockets will it take to deploy just one satellite? Let alone the manufacture of the rockets, satellites, receiving antennas, infrastructure and running the whole system! What about the environmental damage beaming high energy microwave energy through the air and onto the surface of the sea, air and sea wildlife will surely be effected? What happens if there’s a fault so the beam direction then gets directed towards land? Has any of this been studied or even thought about?
I think that’s the plausible cover story. It could work, technically, but never be a sensible cost option – so it has to be weapons development that’s driving it.
I think the points above all have their merits but aren’t we losing sight of the larger picture? SBSP can be used for space defence against asteroids, emergency power for forward operating bases during crises, where transporting generators or batteries etc is a painful process. Then there’s the possibility to use it in future for solar sails. Thus this idea has many applications not just energy for places like Alaska, Japan, Europe and Easter Island, but many other applications. Oh, and yes, it might turn into a weapon; one that doesn’t include nuclear fall out but could be devastating. I would hope though that scientists would see sense and not allow that one to fall into the hands of the psychos that run our planet, voted their by the greed of the largely ignorant masses.