California Approves Space-based Solar Satellite

The ever-expanding solar industry has tackled land-based projects and is now looking to the skies for their latest innovations. Although space-based solar technology has been around for decades, it has never really been a viable option in terms of cost-efficiency. Nevertheless, last Thursday California regulators approved a project to beam solar energy from a satellite in space.

The one significant advantage of a space-based solar project over one on land is its ability to continuously produce energy since there is no day or night in space. The obvious drawbacks would be its relatively high risk in not only deploying, but maintaining such a project.

Solaren is a private manufacturing, project development and consulting company stationed in southern California. For 35 years they have developed clean energy technology and are now heading an ambitious project to harness energy from space. Their engineers have previously designed a Mylar mirror 1 km in diameter focus light onto solar panels essentially increasing its electricity output.

If the project is successful it will open opportunities for other space-based energy projects expanding the possibilities of a greener future. The target completion date is June, 2016 after which PG&E has agreed under contract to purchase 1,700 gigawatt hours per year for 15 years. A representative from PG&E said Thursday that they will only pay if Solaren delivers as promised. The representative intimated that the price for Solaren’s electricity is competitive with regular, land-based solar power.