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“Space-based solar power offers unparalleled benefits with competitive energy costs and 24/7 availability,’ Martin Soltau, Space Solar’s co-CEO, said in an emailed statement. “Reykjavik Energy’s recognition of the potential for space-based solar to drive the energy transition is exciting, and we’re thrilled to be working together in partnership toward a sustainable future.”
Each of the 30-megawatt solar farms will be delivered to orbit by a single launch of SpaceX‘s Starship megarocket, Space Solar envisions.
With a capacity to lift up to 165 tons (150 metric tons) of payload into low Earth orbit, Starship is poised to revolutionize humankind’s use of space by driving down launch cost, the major hurdle for the deployment of large-scale space infrastructure such as orbiting solar power stations.
The project partners are currently scouting for locations to build ground-based receiving antennas that would collect the energy beamed down in the form of high-frequency radio waves and convert it into electricity to be fed into the power grid.
Space Solar’s power plants are built from modular core building blocks that could be assembled to create solar power harvesters of different sizes. The giant satellites can orbit at different altitudes and provide power to multiple countries at the same time, the company said.
Until recently, space-based solar power was considered utter science fiction due to the enormous sizes required to produce usable amounts of power and the high cost of launching such vast assemblies into space. The arrival of SpaceX’s Starship and advances in space robotics, however, have brought the dream closer to reality.
A number of countries, including Japan and China, plan to launch space-based solar power demonstrators in the coming years and develop fully fledged orbiting power stations within the next two decades. In February, U.S. startup Virtus Solis announced plans to launch a space-based solar power demonstrator in 2027. That project, too, will rely on SpaceX’s Starship to get off the ground, and will provide about 1 megawatt to users on Earth.
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Publish date : 2024-10-24 07:00:00
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