How Solar Farms in Space Might Beam Electricity to Earth - EcoWatch

2022-11-01

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

There is an almost unbelievable potential solution in the form of solar energy harvested from space. A plan by the European Space Agency (ESA) to harvest energy from the sun and beam the solar energy back down to Earth is still in the testing phase, but the hope is to have a solar space farm that generates energy equal to that of a nuclear power plant, reported Euronews Green.

According to Space Energy Initiative (SEI) co-chairman Martin Soltau, harvesting solar energy from space could be implemented as early as 2035, reported BBC News.

Cassiopeia is a project by SEI that involves using large satellites to harvest solar energy while orbiting high above the Earth. Soltau said the power generated could be almost limitless.

“In theory it could supply all of the world’s energy in 2050,” Soltau said, according to BBC News. “A narrow strip around geostationary Earth orbit receives more than 100 times the amount of energy per year than all of humanity is forecast to use in 2050.”

The UK government is providing $3.44 million for space-based solar power (SBSP) initiatives.

Modules for the SEI satellites would be produced on Earth and assembled and maintained in space by robots.

After the satellites harvested the solar energy, it would be converted to radio waves and beamed back to Earth, where a “rectifying antenna” would convert them into electricity.