Tag Archive for: spacebasedsolarpower

Aetherflux aims to launch a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit to collect solar power and beam it to Earth using infrared lasers.

Startup takes new approach to space-based solar power

A startup led by a founder of a financial services company is taking a new approach to space-based solar power intended to be more scalable and affordable than previous concepts.

Aetherflux announced Oct. 9 plans to develop and ultimately deploy a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit that will collect solar power and beam it to Earth using infrared lasers. The company is planning to demonstrate this technology with a small satellite launching by early 2026.

The concept is a departure from many previous concepts for space-based solar power (SBSP), which have involved large arrays in geostationary orbit. Those systems would transmit their power using microwaves to large rectennas on the ground. Such concepts have been studied for more than half a century but have not advanced beyond the drawing board.

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Source: Space News

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Space-based solar panels are lighter and multi-junction that extracts more energy in the same amount of exposed surface area.

Space, the new frontier of photovoltaics

This isn’t science fiction: producing photovoltaic energy directly in space and then beaming it down for use on Earth is the focus of the European Space Agency’s SOLARIS project, which we’re also involved in. The first major goal: to place a one-megawatt power plant in orbit by 2030. The results of the project will also be useful for “terrestrial” photovoltaic applications.

Space-based solar power has been around for more than 60 years: in fact, in 1958, the U.S. satellite Vanguard 1 was the first spacecraft to use a sub-one-watt power panel to operate a radio transmitter. The satellite stopped working a few years later, but it’s still in orbit: not only did it pave the way for the use of solar energy in space, it’s also the oldest human-made object orbiting the Earth. In the meantime, technology has advanced: today the International Space Station is equipped with more than 400 square meters of panels, which provide it with more than 240,000 times the energy of that first small installation on Vanguard 1.

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Source: Enel Green Power

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Researchers at Xidian University ran a successful test of the “world’s first full-link and full-system solar power plant” on June 5

New tower in China brings us a step closer to space-based solar power

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Researchers at China’s Xidian University are claiming to have completed testing and inspection of a ground array that could pave the way to space-based solar power—a concept long heralded as a potential solution to our energy woes.

Researchers at Xidian University ran a successful test of the “world’s first full-link and full-system solar power plant” on June 5, according to a translated statement published today by the university. The plant is a 246-foot-tall (75-meter) steel structure located on Xidian University’s southern campus, and it’s equipped with with five different subsystems meant to foster the eventual development of space-based solar power arrays.

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Source: Gizmodo

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