Imagine a space structure with a length of 800 meters that “looks” at the sun and sends non-stop clean energy to the Earth. The European Space Agency and the Department of Strategic Planning and Innovation for Human and Space Exploration aim to lead the Old Continent in such a venture.
The most ambitious project ever undertaken by mankind is the active effort to make it possible to collect solar energy from the star of our solar system, the Sun, a few thousand kilometers from the surface of the Earth and then transfer it to all of us.
ESA’s focus is on the Moon and what Europe will do on the Moon. In the last year and a half, however, he has also been dealing with climate change and how Europe could possibly bring solar energy from Space.
Clean energy from afar, for all of us here on Earth
The essence of the project is to collect the energy in space and transfer it with microwaves to the Earth. It’s something that sounds like… science fiction. We must note that there are generally no technological issues for such a thing. The technology has already been tested and proven since Tesla’s time. In addition, various countries such as China, US, Japan, already have such programs running and testing on the ground.
The question that arises is what is needed to be (s.s. the project) technologically viable since for this purpose a very large solar collector in Space is needed. The SOLARIS Program aims to prepare Europe for a future decision to build a “solar energy collection farm”, Space-Based Solar Power, and the European Space Agency (ESA) is the one that has proposed this specific preparation program. An engine for Europe’s rapid decisions regarding such technologies is also the goal of a Net Zero planet, i.e. 2050 without the use of carbon. ESA has already measured the cost/performance ratio through the “Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) for terrestrial energy needs” surveys that were only completed in August 2022.
Why would a space agency be concerned with energy?
At the global level, there is currently no clear plan on how to get rid of carbon. So ESA set out – with Agenda 2025 – two years ago to explore new ways in which space could contribute to climate change and mitigation.
Of course, the EU contributes with the satellites with which it “monitors the climate situation”, but here we are now talking about electricity from space, “a game-changing development”. “The question now is whether we can make the solar energy collection station that big and whether the finances of the case work out. In the past decades, various studies have been carried out, but the cost of the launch has always been prohibitive. But in recent years, especially with private companies in the US such as Space X and the reusable space launchers that dramatically lower costs, as well as with various other innovations related to the production of satellite systems, there has been a dramatic drop in costs.
From Space to Earth and into our lives
The good thing is that the technologies needed for this development of solar energy in Space can be used in many other applications in space as well as on Earth. If we can prove that you can do this microwave energy transfer over long distances like from Space to Earth, obviously this has applications in our daily life on Earth as well… That’s the bet.
We will look at how the construction in Space of Big Structures will be done, which must be done with great precision. The biggest thing we’ve built right now in Space is the International Space Station. A Space Solar Station should be as tall as the Burj Khalifa building (830 meters high) in Dubai! So we are talking about a huge structure. While we know how to build things in Space we will have to see if we can do it on such a large scale.
At the same time, another issue that researchers and manufacturers have to look at in the next three years is whether they can have solar panels in space that are both light enough to be easily launched, but also efficient enough. A good thing that certainly exists technologically is that 40% more solar energy can be collected outside the atmosphere.
The next important question that scientists want to answer immediately is the part of wireless energy transfer, where the mission should be done with microwaves. On this topic, in October 2022, Airbus in Germany, outside of Munich did a small demonstration and wirelessly transmitted energy over a short distance. Now they want to see if they can do it from geostationary orbit to Earth level – you transmit the energy wirelessly but you have a collector that has to “see” the collectors in geostationary orbit.
In this technology, however, one more huge advantage that exists is that if you ‘see’ with the collector on a space station, you can (send) the energy to different countries. To send from the Space Solar Station, for example, energy in the evening to Europe and in the morning to Africa, a system that works as… portable!
In the USA they already have a study station for the collection of energy and have even said that they offer it for cooperation with other countries, while as a country in this field they have a long-term strategy and have already made statements about huge space stations. Finally, Japan is perhaps the country that has this technology more than any other as part of its space policy and says it will also build Space Solar research and a Space Solar Station.
