The infinite potential of solar energy produced in space

Perhaps the most crucial point is the transmission, which must necessarily be very efficient, so as not to lose the advantage over more traditional terrestrial, and today convenient, modes such as the various forms of renewable energy. Those who have carried out the first experiments on Earth assure us that the impact on the ecosystem, starting with the atmosphere, on any animals that may be intercepted, means such as aircraft or other satellites do not seem to create problems.

It is a bit like the glass-half-filled speech, but the percentage of technicians, politicians and companies who see it as half full has been steadily increasing in recent years.

Benvenuti (Iau): ‘Concerned about the impact on the sky’

“The impression I came back with from the three-day conference is that we have made remarkable progress,’ says Piero Benvenuti, Director of the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Sky. ‘Obviously as the world astrophysical community, which I represented in my speech and also at the subsequent conference in Vienna convened by the UN, we are concerned about the possible impact on the sky that these projects might entail and on which we are continually doing research. In addition to having a very high cultural value, in fact, or even a religious value for many communities on our planet, the sky, or rather the universe, represents a laboratory for the physics of very high energies, impossible to study in terrestrial laboratories.

However, it is not only Caltech that is at the forefront: the Japanese space agency (Jaxa) has plans to launch orbital panels and test energy transmission on a commercial scale in the near future, the European Space Agency, Esa, has launched the Solaris programme in 2021 to study the technical and economic feasibility of the concept, and a decision on a full programme is expected by 2025. There are also several in the US and UK, such as Overview Energy and Aetherflux, which have detailed plans and adequate funding.

The most interesting case is perhaps in China, where they are working on a set of satellites, Omega 2.0 being the prototype, which with a bowl-like structure collects sunlight. The Chinese also want to have an area of at least one square kilometre in orbit and have managed to transmit, in ground tests, just over 2,081 watts on 55 metres of baseline.