Pulling Solar Power from Space

 

Pulling Solar Power from Space

After the shenanigans of the Copenhagen Climate Summit last week, its refreshing news to hear about some serious efforts undertaken by a Southern California company on the renewable energy front.

Solaren Corporation is talking about reaching up 22,000 miles above the earth’s surface, into outer space, for solar power.  There are two major benefits to this approach for solar energy: (1) no real estate fees, and (2) no cloud cover.

While these are sky-high aspirations, there are also some monumental challenges to solar power from space.  Solaren is drawing on decades of research regarding how to get all the components into space and then connect them in a cohesive system.

Solaren’s CEO noted:

“The thing in space was going to be so heavy, it was going to take hundreds or thousands of rockets to put in orbit and thousands of astronauts.”

Working with a number of engineers, Solaren set out to design an orbiting solar power plant light enough to be launched without great expense.  Instead of a single large power plant, the solution is to put separate modules together in a “geo-synchronous” neighborhood. Each component would serve a unique function, and communications/tracking would be through radar.

Solar Power from Space

Each of the components has a different function. First, a big mirror will collect and focus sunlight onto solar panels. The panels will beam energy to a giant antenna that then beams the solar power back to earth in the form of radio waves.  Because the basic technology is not new, Solaren expect that it will be pulling solar power from space by 2016.

Pacific Gas & Electric is on board already!  The utility signed the first commercial contract to purchase enough space solar power for 250,000 homes.  Jonathan Marshall, a PGE spokesperson stated:

“If it works, it could be a real game changer in the industry and indeed for the entire world. We’re paying only for the energy if and when its delivered. If they don’t deliver, we don’t pay.”

The biggest remaining question for Solaren is cost.  Although it can design and manufacture effective technology to beam solar power back to Earth, they have to be able to conduct a profitable business around the venture.

Somehow, I think they’ll get there!

Tags: greenhouse gas emissions, solar power from space, solar power plant, solar power space, solaren corporation, solaren space, space solar power