The UK government has announced funding for Cambridge and other universities and a clutch of high-tech companies to develop technologies that could turn space-based solar power (SBSP) into a major source of affordable, clean baseload energy.
Space-based solar power (SBSP) collects energy from the sun using panels on satellites and beams it back safely to earth with wireless technology.
Energy security secretary Grant Shapps, who unveiled the £4.5m ($5.7m) funding initiative at London Tech Week event today (Monday), said the UK government was backing a rapidly emerging technology offering “huge potential to boost the UK’s energy security, reduce the need for fossil fuels and drive down household bills."
The government statement on the funding initiative cited an independent study from 2021 which found that SBSP could generate up to 10GW of electricity a year, a quarter of the UK’s power needs, by 2050.
Space-based panels can provide solar power all year round in an environment where the sun is visible for over 99% of the time, harnessing levels of solar intensity that are substantially greater than received on earth, according to the UK research.
The 2021 study, carried out by consultancy firm Frazer-Nash, found that SBSP has the potential to provide a base load energy with good grid integration characteristics and in a way that was described as safe, resilient and secure.
The report offered support for the concept’s potential to delivering clean baseload energy day and night throughout the year and in all weathers.
If built, the satellites are expected to be large, requiring modular construction, with lightweight solar panels generating over 3GW of electricity.
This is converted into high frequency radio waves and beamed to a rectifying antenna (rectenna) on the earth as what is described as ‘wireless power transmission (WPT)’
The UK study described an encrypted pilot beam sent from the ground to the satellite to ensure security and control of the transmitted energy. The 'rectenna' converts the radio waves into electricity and typically around 2GW of power is delivered into the grid.
“It is scalable, and could make a major contribution to the global need for abundant, affordable clean energy,” the study stated.
The eight winning projects qualifying for funding in the UK included Cambridge University, whose researchers will develop ultra-lightweight solar panels for the satellites that can function in the high-radiation conditions of space, and Queen Mary University in London, where work will focus on a wireless system to enable the solar power collected in space to be transferred to earth.
The eight UK projects will be awarded funding from the UK government’s Space Based Solar Power Innovation Competition, which is part of a £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.
Shapps said: “We’re taking a giant leap by backing the development of this exciting technology and putting the UK at the forefront of this rapidly emerging industry as it prepares for launch.”
Those gaining funding will include MicroLink Devices UK, in South Wales, to develop a new generation of lightweight, flexible solar panels, the University of Bristol, to produce a simulation of solar space wireless power transfer and Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd for testing electronical steering and the beam quality of its space satellite antenna technology.
The UK is among several countries, including Japan and United States, committed to the development of space-based solar power.
Earlier this month, scientists at the California Institute of Technology claimed to have achieved a world-first by successfully transmitting solar power to Earth from space.
Among the potential virtues of SBSP extolled by the UK's 2021 study were export opportunities for energy and technology and to provide power for humanitarian disaster relief or in times of emergency.
