Space-Based Power Project Successfully Transmits Power To Earth For First Time - OODA Loop
OODA Loop - Space-Based Power Project Successfully Transmits Power To Earth For First Time
Sci-Fi fans and futurists have long envisioned a mechanism that would capture solar power from space, focus it and transmit it to earth as a way of providing more efficient energy for humanity. There are many theoretical potential benefits of this if it can be made to work, including less pollution and no fear that the source of power will ever run out. With the right architecture, space based energy transmitted like this could also make access to energy available with little or no infrastructure. Just set up a device in your yard and there is your power.
How might this work? The video here from Dr. Ali Hajimiri, Caltech Bren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering and Co-Director of the Space-Based Solar Power Project, explains how:
Thanks to the vision and hard work and engineering of this Caltech team part of this vision has now been successfully demonstrated.
Caltech announced on 1 June that:
A space solar power prototype that was launched into orbit in January is operational and has demonstrated its ability to wirelessly transmit power in space and to beam detectable power to Earth for the first time.
Wireless power transfer was demonstrated by MAPLE, one of three key technologies being tested by the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1), the first space-borne prototype from Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project (SSPP). SSPP aims to harvest solar power in space and transmit it to the Earth’s surface.
What does this mean for business decision-makers today? Consider the long range impact of continued progress here. Clearly this needs to be watched, as does other dramatic improvements in energy production like newly NRC approved small modular nuclear reactors. OODA will continue to track developments in energy and highlight those we see as impactful to both long range and short range decision-making.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: nuclear
Nuclear energy provides almost 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply. Advocates have called for an expanded role for nuclear as an emissions-free fuel source. But the economics of building new reactors are daunting. In addition, lingering safety concerns are an institutionalized part of the calculation of nuclear regulation, and highly radioactive nuclear waste remains a can that public officials have been inclined to kick down the road. The Energy Information Administration projects a sharp decline in nuclear power generation over the next decade, as new nuclear plants — two are planned — are more than offset by anticipated retirements of several operating reactors.