Solar Power From (Literally) Out of This World

Scoff at my corny title if you must, but this is an endeavor with a whiff of more Isaac Asimov than Nikola Tesla: Californian utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric said last week that it would seek approval from regulators to purchase 200 megawatts’ worth of solar power starting in 2016, beamed down to Earth from a solar paneled satellite in outer space. The project would be developed by solar power startup Solaren, which says it will launch a satellite 22,000 miles above the earth’s equator using current rocket technology and convert the collected sunlight into radio-frequency transmissions. (The Solaren link didn’t work when I tried it, but perhaps you might have better luck.) Then, the radio waves would be picked up by antennae in Fresno, California, where the waves would be converted into electricity and pumped into the regular power grid, according to PG&E.

Various online sources discussing the project have expressed thinly-veiled amusement or consternation, and not without reason—unless you’re NASA or Sir Richard Branson, sending a rocket into space doesn’t typically figure into one’s list of (realistically) justifiable expenditures, and solar installations are costly enough as it is. Yet, Solaren and PG&E seem to know what they’re doing: Solaren was founded by former spacecraft engineer Gary Spirnak, and boasts a staff with decades of experience in the aerospace industry, and PG&E already has significant investments in renewable energy and has spent the past 18 months negotiating this deal, though it also hasn’t put any money into Solaren. After all, if there’s anyplace where sunlight is in undeniable abundance, it’s outer space, where it’s a lot stronger too—your kids could probably tell you this. And, as NASA and the Pentagon have been studying the concept of orbiting solar farms for decades, with solar panels already in use on satellites, perhaps it’s only a matter of time before this technology finally trickles down to the commercial market.

The main hurdle, now, is of course money. From the Guardian:

But [Solaren CEO and founder] Gary Spirnak will face a challenge raising funds for his project during a recession. He said he was seeking in the low billions of dollars in investment, under $5bn. But that is still much higher than the usual $100m (£67m) to $200m costs for projects in renewable energy.