Solar power has been long referred to as a great source of sustainable power and what better place to get this power than from space itself. As such, there have been new developments in space-based solar power (SBSP), which involves beaming down solar energy from a satellite.
Space-Based Solar Power
The concept of SBSP has been around since the late 1960s but only recently has it reached new heights with practical accomplishments in this field. The process of using a satellite to collect solar energy and beam it down to Earth has huge potential despite the technology coming with its own complications.
Although it's widely believed to have been around since the 1960s, other accounts say the concept existed way earlier dating back to 1923, when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian theorist, proposed sending a system of mirrors into space for sunlight beams to be concentrated to earth.
In his prediction, he said the heat from a 10sqm absorbing area could be enough to boil ten large coffee cups in the span of just two minutes. However, during this time, he also highlighted how cloudy days could create problems.
Forms of Green Energy
Two major problems with the SBSP approach included costs and technological hurdles. However, should these problems be resolved, SBSP could become a very important part of the world's transition toward green energy from its common practice of using fossil fuels.
The way solar energy works is that it uses solar-thermal energy and photovoltaics (PV) in order to harness energy from the sun to power electrical items. The sun's energy can also be gathered through another way, wind energy.
This is because although wind energy is categorized differently, the sun's energy indirectly still affects it due to how breezes are created. Basically, the sun heats up the atmosphere, resulting in uneven heat and creating breezes.
However, green energies have many limitations, like the land space required for wind and light farms and how solar farms don't collect enough energy, especially during cloudy days.
Solar Powered Energy
Fast forward to the future, SBSP could prove critical to the UK's net-zero 2050 target as the government is trying to reach zero carbon emissions by that time. However, this process wasn't mentioned in the strategy.
Another independent study computed that by 2050 SBSP would be able to create 10 GW of electricity, which is already a quarter of the current energy demands in the UK. It's also expected to create a multi-billion industry and employ 143,000 jobs across the country.
While not being included in the government's strategy, it is still being studied by the European Space Agency (ESA) to examine SBSP's viability with the SOLARIS initiative. Should the results be positive, the agency could have a full development plan for SBSP by 2025.
Other countries like Japan have already officially expressed interest of using SBSP to beam down solar energy to Earth by 2025.
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