Building the solar power ‘farm’ in space would take more than 60 rocket flights, possibly with SpaceX, and a team of robot builders. The power would be directed away from inhabited areas, probably offshore. Whether the finance numbers would add up is anyone’s guess, but it’s claimed to be a lot cheaper than nuclear power for example, with no waste product.
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A company hoping to launch the first solar farm into space has passed a critical milestone with a prototype on Earth, says Sky News.
Oxfordshire-based Space Solar plans to power more than a million homes by the 2030s with mile-wide complex of mirrors and solar panels orbiting 22,000 miles above the planet.
But its super-efficient design for harvesting constant sunlight – called CASSIOPeiA – requires the system to rotate towards the sun, whatever its position, while still sending power to a fixed receiver on the ground.
That’s now been shown to work for the first time at Queen’s University Belfast, with a wireless beam successfully “steered” across a lab to turn on a light.
Martin Soltau, the company’s founder, told Sky News in an exclusive interview: “This is a world first. You can get constant energy all the time.
“This is really going to have a substantial impact on our future energy systems.”
Solar panels capture 13 times more energy in space than they do on the ground because the light intensity is higher and there’s no atmosphere, clouds or night.
Even though some energy would be lost by the time it is beamed back to Earth and connected to the electricity grid, it would still far outstrip solar generation on the ground.
But it’s the production of power around the clock that makes space-based solar energy so attractive for providing a “baseload” to back up ground-based renewables.
Currently, nuclear energy and gas turbines provide the baseload for the grid but produce radioactive waste or carbon dioxide respectively.
“This is why the government is so excited by the prospect of space-based solar power,” said Mr Soltau.
“Not only is it very capable in that it’s helping to make the whole energy system work more effectively, but the cost (of electricity) is about quarter of that from nuclear.”
. . .
Dr Jovana Radulovic, an independent energy expert based at the University of Portsmouth, believes space based solar power will play a big part in meeting future electricity needs.
But more evidence is needed to back claims that it has a low carbon footprint despite multiple rocket launches.
“The carbon emissions are equivalent to that of renewables,” she said. “But that doesn’t take into account potential pollution effects in the upper atmosphere.
“I think if we get more clarity on that and we can genuinely prove that space-based solar power is cleaner than some of the current alternatives, that would definitely make it more popular.”
Full article here.
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Image: SpaceX’s Starship (credit: Sky News)
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Is Sundaya joke day on Tallbloke? Apart from the obvious practical problems it’s a whole lot cheaper to build nuclear power on the grid on the ground without lifting everything into space.
This really nuts at a scientists say academic level of deluion (academics are rarely caoable of cosidering scale and cinstruction. Or the costs to the taxpayers who pay their wages. Not their problem.
The only reason anybody would do this is to knowingly regressively harvest a subsidy at public expense.
Because iit’s a whole lot cheaper to build nuclear power on the grid on the ground where its needed and is a direct sovereign resource, without lifting everything into space where its vulnerable and hard to fix.
Is this posted to wind up people who work in the real world?This is really Nuts. The only way anybody would do this is to dishonestly disburse taxpayer dollars to lobbysits so they can harvest the massively regressive public subsidy.
I smell legalised crime, a malfeasance.
But what a weapon!
Brilliant! Which Bond was it? I’m guessing GoldenEye?
Just when you think we’ve reached peak crazy, this comes along.
Space Energy Initiative says:
Space Based Solar Power is the concept of harvesting solar energy in space, and beaming it to earth, thereby overcoming the intermittency of terrestrial renewable energy.
The benefits it offers include clean, continuous base-load energy, with much lower land usage than conventional renewables. It could provide a substantial percentage of the UK’s energy needs in future, as part of a mix of energy technologies.
Solar Power Satellite designs are well advanced in several nations and the UK Government has confirmed the engineering feasibility of the concept through an independent study.
. . .
SBSP is challenging because of the sheer scale of infrastructure being deployed in space. Many of the underlying technologies are considered relatively mature, and the physics of power collection and beaming is well understood. The reducing cost of space launch is making the concept increasingly affordable, and the latest modular SPS concepts are designed for industrial scale manufacture and robotic assembly. These attributes are key to achieving a competitive LCOE.
https://spaceenergyinitiative.org.uk/space-based-solar-power/
It might turn out to be a dud but until it’s either attempted or abandoned, it’s all opinion.
Pure handwaving. A couple of numbers to support the concept, please.
And another thing. As fas as I recall the one’s built on Earth have not been a success. Both in spain and the Southern USA?
And to suggest nuclear is more expensive at £5B per GW capacity built and connected on the grid where its needed is utterly delusional, so I can’t be bovverred with this bollocks any more. Is there a subsidy for it?
Np, No, NO.
I remember reading a science fiction story about this and the results of the beam losing lock on the ground station and burning vast areas of the country.
The idiots proposing this need to forget about getting subsidies for preventing the non existent ‘global warming/climate change’ myth.
Will they have to use energy to maintain the correct position against the solar wind to stay above the receiver in the UK.
After all the solar panels will be a “solar sail” as well.
Rational risks and cost not required as this is SO wrong, FFS, etc. SEparation of source from grid a problem, and gravity makes it expensive to maintain, also vaccuum and absolute zero temperatures, etc, or impossible. I will not come here again. CEng, CPhys, MBA all say NO.
Huh, I don’t want to interject in any argument/discussion about which I know little …. BUT but BUt ….. MBA all say NO – that I DO KNOW something about, like HR …. From our own experience(s), we do not rate highly any of the HR folk, and we’re finding that MBAs are not much better… all about administering BS. to the masses. Just as modern Degrees are not worthy of the digital paper they are written on.
Meeting the timeline set out by the Government’s Net Zero pledge, and in partnership with other nations, the aim is to establish the first orbital demonstrator SBSP system by 2030, with the first of a kind operational system delivering power into the grid by 2040.
A constellation of Solar Power Satellites would be in operation by the mid 2040s, delivering a substantial proportion of the UK’s energy needs.
https://spaceenergyinitiative.org.uk/space-based-solar-power/
Six years to the demo system is the objective. Then we can either fall about laughing or see something in operation 🤔. PS the talkshop has no axe to grind here, just reporting what’s going on.
More: Solar Power Satellite designs are well advanced in several nations and the UK Government has confirmed the engineering feasibility of the concept through an independent study.
If this was a lesson on how to invite riducule, I’d give it A++.
Did they also study the local weather effects–cloud cover, rainfall, prevailing winds, storm behavior? All that energy present in the atmosphere 24/7 has got to have some impact. What about no-fly air zones? What about re-entry of space vehicles?
Next thing we know, some idiot will actually be convinced we can build a Dyson sphere.
Yeah for sure, ”Wot about, Wot about, Wot about, Wot about, Wot about, Wot about, “ Wot about, the Plonkers who come up with these ideas and then go ahead and set them in motion. Some H8 speech needed now before they Trigger ME and many others not willing to admit it !!