NASA Looks At Solar Power Generation in Space Again

And speaking of power beaming….

Everybody is getting interested in beaming power down from space.  Space based solar power (SBSP) isn’t a new idea, but technology has improved and net zero is becoming urgent, so old ideas are getting a fresh look.

As Jeff Foust reports, NASA is having another look [2]. Naturally, NASA has looked at this concept before, many times. But the most recent evaluation was 20 years ago, so it’s not only out of date, it’s embarassing.

Worse (for NASA), everybody is doing it [1]. Nothing will get action in Washington as much as “the Chinese are ahead of us”.  In this case, pretty much everybody is ahead of NASA, which is embarassing enough for them to do a new study.

One thing that has changed since the last study is the growing desire to get the electricity grid to net zero carbon as soon as possible.  This is necessary but not sufficient to getting the whole planet to a lower carbon foot print.  

Orbital power is just the thing:  abundant (free) solar energy to collect, without paving the Earth with solar panels.  And whatever emissions there might be would be outside the atmosphere (at least after launch). 

Another thing that is changing are concepts for beaming the power down.  Everybody, including me, is less than enthusiastic about hi power death rays from space.  So much depends on creating power beaming that is not only safe, but clearly and obviously safe.  (This may be the hardest task of all.)

The third thing that has changed is the dramatic drop is the cost of launching to low orbit.  We still want to ration launches as much as possible, if only because of environmental impact.  But it is possible to dream of launching a whole lot more stuff at a reasonable cost than in earlier days.

With lower costs and stronger desire for carbon free energy, the economics of space-based solar power are shifting a lot. 

In short, we can expect NASA’s new study to be a whole lot more optimistic than its previous evaluations.

And regardless of NASA, we will see China, Japan, Europe, and US corporations piloting SBSP projects (and probably others, too).

Ready or not, Space Based Solar Power is coming. Even NASA knows that.

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1. European Space Agency (ESA). Space-based Solar Power for Net Zero 2050. 2021, https://indico.esa.int/event/399/.
2. Jeff Foust, NASA to reexamine space-based solar power, in Space News, May 28, 2022. https://spacenews.com/nasa-to-reexamine-space-based-solar-power/