Whether it’s choosing a site for a wind farm or spotting faults in solar arrays, space-based technologies can pour rocket fuel onto the renewables rollout, claimed a European Space Agency officer, ahead of a summit promoting space and green energy sector collaboration.
Space provides “additional weapons” companies can use to make building and maintaining renewable energy assets faster, cheaper and more effective, Beatrice Barresi, a senior sustainable applications officer at the European Space Agency (ESA) told Recharge.
“Space can help the green transition from end to end, through the whole supply chain,” she said.
When it comes to the opportunities space holds for renewable energy, many of the headlines are captured by the prospect of launching huge solar power arrays into orbit.
This is no longer “fantasy science” said Barresi (catching herself halfway through saying it is not “rocket science,” which it most certainly is), with the main obstacles increasingly financial as technical hurdles are overcome.
The ESA is currently assessing the viability of solar in space through its SOLARIS initiative, with plans to decide next year on whether to launch a full development programme.
Barresi, however, works on promoting the use of space-based technologies that are available here and now, through the ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions or ‘BASS’ programme.
The BASS programme is currently turning its attention to renewables, with a conference planned in Paris this month to help bring together the space and green energy sectors and boost collaboration.
“Bringing together the traditional space community with the non-space community is important,” said Barresi.
Many renewables sector companies are already using space-based tech to support their work, but far from all of them, she said. “If we really want to reach the green transition at scale, we really need to involve everyone in this transformation.”
That’s why the forum is important, to “inform the energy community” of the capabilities that space-based solutions have to offer.
For developers looking to build a new renewable energy facility, the “first thing that you need to know is 'where,'” said Barresi.
Being able to make an initial assessment using satellite data is therefore “very helpful” because it can filter out lots of locations without developers having to physically turn up to see for themselves.
Enter MESPAC, an ESA spinoff attending the forum, which claims it can help offshore wind developers do away with “extremely time-consuming, expensive and risky” surveys on the wind, waves and currents by tapping data from advanced Earth observation satellites instead.
Satellite data can also help with maintenance, said Barresi. Another forum attendee, London start-up SatelliteVu, claims it can use satellites to map heat signatures on Earth and spot faults in solar farms to help improve their efficiency.
Spaceborne analytics firm EDInsights is meanwhile working with hydropower producers in Norway to use satellite data to help map and monitor water resources.
Increased collaboration between the space and renewables sector will also foster the development of new technologies, said Barresi.
Renewables companies explain their priorities and “what is really needed by the energy market when it comes to the green transition,” she said, allowing developers in the space community to then “capture those needs.”
When you combine space-based technologies with terrestrial solutions, whether that is AI, robots or digital twins, Barresi said “you unlock a number of applications that are so important and so helpful in the green transition.”
