Space-Based Solar Power: The Race is On
Photo credit: woodleywonderworks
Outer space is the final frontier for solar power. It rises above shady clouds and prohibitive sunsets. Space is home to incredibly intense sunlight that never wanes. It is an arena that NASA is already well aware of, using hi-tech solar panels to power satellites and space stations. Now a number of privately owned firms are researching and aggressively working to follow NASA’s lead. The race is on to be the first company to get solar satellites up into orbit.
PowerSat, a Washington state company, has now filed for patents involving the linkage of up to 300 satellites together in space which will beam collected solar energy to one big satellite, or transmitter, which will in turn send that power back to Earth.
PowerSat has two technologies, BrightStar and Solar Powered Orbital Transfer (SPOT), that they say will reduce launch and operation costs by roughly $1 billion for a whopping 2,500 MW power station. Their proposed power station would also use SPOT, or solar powered thrusters to position the solar panels in the most ideal location to collect and transfer energy.
At PowerSat’s side is Solaren, a California-based firm that has a plan (whatever that is exactly they’re not telling) to have a space solar power plant up and beaming down by 2016. Solaren is currently seeking funding to get their project started. They have, curiously enough, already inked a deal with utility PG&E, who will buy 200 MW of their space solar power over eight years beginning in 2016. Now all they have to do is build the thing.
PowerSat, Solaren and other companies researching space-based solar power do have government research on their side. For years NASA and other researchers have attested to the “someday” viability of space derived solar energy. Obama’s transition team even recommended it as advantageous, citing its scalability, lack of intermittency, availability, flexibility, and the all-important fact that no fundamental breakthroughs are necessary to make it happen.
And the race is on.
Posted on July 7th in Solar News by Dan.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:57 am
For anyone interested, here is a Wikipedia article about Space-based solar power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power
The article suggests a 10km wide receiver antenna on the ground. Hopefully, this can be located close to the cities consuming the power. Otherwise developers will face the problems of building additional transmission lines.
March 15th, 2010 at 2:49 am
[...] PowerSat compares the cost of such a system to a typical hyrdopower project. By using its patented technology, it believes it can reduce launching and operation costs by about $1 billion for a 2500 megawatt station. [...]