The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to build a solar power plant in space to reduce reliance on non-renewable energy sources. The agency is pursuing this bold plan under project Solaris in order to achieve Europe's aim to go carbon neutral by 2050. While the project is still in its infancy, ESA says that it will be fully developed by 2035.
ESA is laying the groundwork for developing satellite technology to harvest the Sun's energy in space before transmission to stations on Earth.
(Join us this week at the International Conference on #EnergyfromSpace 👉 https://t.co/st6MlHgNf2) https://t.co/hrdehyFEJO — European Space Agency (@esa) April 16, 2024
In an official statement released on April 17, the agency said that it has started to lay the groundwork for the development of satellites that will harness the power of the Sun.
How will a space-based solar power plant work?
The idea is to capture the Sun's energy, convert it into radio waves and transmit them wirelessly to ground stations on Earth. These waves will then be converted into energy for distribution to the energy grid. This will ensure a continuous power supply since the satellites in orbit will be unaffected by cloud cover or other atmospheric conditions.
If this plan sounds complex, there is another relatively simpler way of generating power. The other way is using large mirrors in space that will reflect sunlight to existing solar farms on Earth and enable them to continue producing energy even at times when natural light levels are low.
According to ESA, the reflector design has fewer technical challenges than the radio-frequency concept and it could be used to test technologies used in radio-frequency solar power constellations.
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As for challenges with the latter, there are many. First among them is the sheer size of the constellations which are expected to measure hundreds of meters or even kilometers across. Another major challenge is the assembly maintenance and operation of the constellation while protecting it from existing space debris in the low-Earth orbit.
But, Sanjay Vijendran, ESA’s lead for the SOLARIS initiative, believes that the challenges associated with a space-based solar power plant looks doable. He said that the challenges now look surmountable thanks to low-cost reuseable launch systems, and advances in robotics, in-orbit servicing technologies and wireless power transmission.
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ESA's Solaris activity plan says that an in-orbit demonstrator will be ready by 2030 whereas a commercial-scale power system will be launched by 2035.
However, all this will be possible only when Europe makes an informed decision on it by the end of 2025. According to ESA, it has accelerated the process by bringing together policymakers, energy suppliers and space companies to investigate the feasibility of the project in order to convince the governments.
