Today in India, thousands of rural villages lack electricity or cope with an intermittent supply. And in 2030, the Planning Commission of India estimates that the country will have to generate at least 700,000 megawatts of additional power to supply the demand of its growing population and expanding economy.
Much of this electricity come from coal-fired power stations, but Pranav Mehta, director of operations in India in the Space Island Group, the California company that is working to develop solar satellites, has another solution that consists of satellites that collect light solar in a geosynchronous orbit 22,000 miles away.
The satellites transmit, electromagnetic gigawatts of solar energy to receptors located on the ground, where this energy is converted into electricity and would be transferred to the electricity grid. And because in high Earth orbit satellites are not affected by the shadow of the earth almost 365 days, the floating power plants could provide a renewable source of electricity, environmental and permanent.
It was the American scientist Peter Glaser who introduced the idea of capturing solar energy in space in 1968. NASA and the Department of Energy studied the concept throughout the’70s, reaching the conclusion that the technology was feasible, but the cost of creating it and send it into space no.
According to John Mankins, a former NASA technologist and president of the Space Power Association, NASA revised the idea in the mid nineties with a study called “Fresh Look” but the research lost momentum when the agency decided that it no longer was interested in this technology. Around 2002, the project was shelved indefinitely (or it seemed).
To Charles Miller, director of the Space Frontier Foundation, an organization that promotes public access to space, it’s time for a new beginning. The price of oil soars, we are becoming more aware of climate change and increasing concern over the depletion of natural resources, this has rekindled the interest in capturing energy from the space, Miller said.
And so it points to a 2007 report from the National Security Space Office at the Pentagon, which urges the U.S. government to begin developing these systems. “A single kilometer of a band width of geosynchronous earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year almost to equate the amount of energy currently contained in all known recoverable oil reserves on Earth,” the report said.
According to Miller: “The country that leads the space solar power will be the largest exporter of energy to the entire planet for a few hundred years.”
The Pentagon report also notes that Russia, China, the European Union and India are interested in the idea, and that Japan, who has researched this field for decades, is working to test a model on a small scale in the near future.
“You will need a great effort, much study and, unfortunately, a lot of money,” said Jeff Keuter, president of George C. Marshall Institute. “But, of course, is possible.”
For his part, Miller believes it could be possible in 10 years. “We could see the first operational satellite solar power around 2020 if we act now”, he added.
