IAA Press Conference is Tomorrow!

Preview at http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-limitless-power-source-for-the-indefinite-future

A limitless power source for the indefinite future

November 11, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

Space solar power satellite, artist's impression (credit: SpaceWorks Engineering, Inc./Spaceworks Commercial)

On Monday, the National Space Society (NSS) will present findings from an eye-opening new report by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). You’re hearing about this here first. (Full disclosure: I’m a member of the NSS board of directors.)

Some background: By 2030–40, the projected annual electrical energy consumption will be a staggering 220 trillion kiloWatt hours, double the consumption in 2010 — and four times more by 2090–2100, according to theInternational Energy Agency and  U.S. Department of Energy.

“Economic concerns have diverted attention from energy policy and limited the means of intervention,” the International Energy Agency reports in its 2011 World Energy Outlook. “Post-Fukushima, nuclear is facing uncertainty. MENA [Middle East and North Africa] turmoil raised questions about the region’s investment plans. Some key trends are pointing in worrying directions: CO2 emissions rebounded to a record high, energy efficiency of the global economy worsened for the 2nd straight year, and spending on oil imports is near record highs.”

Global energy demand increases in mtoe (million tons of oil equivalent) by one-third from 2010 to 2035, with China & India accounting for 50% of the growth (credit: International Energy Agency)

The space solar power solution

In 2002, Dr. Martin Hoffert, Professor Emeritus of Physics, New York University, proposed a radical solution to what appears to be a serious coming energy shortfall (Science, 2002): space solar power (SSP) — collect energy from space and transmit it wirelessly anywhere in the world.

The basic concept, invented in the late 60s by Dr. Peter Glaser of Arthur D. Little: a large platform, positioned in space in a high Earth orbit continuously collects and converts solar energy into electricity. This power is then used to drive a wireless power transmission system that transmits the solar energy to receivers on Earth. Because of its immunity to nighttime, to weather or to the changing seasons, the SPS concept. has the potential to achieve much greater energy efficiency than ground based solar power systems.

There are significant advantages to SSP compared to ground solar power, according to an NSS statement: solar energy in space is seven times greater per unit area than on the ground, and the collection of solar space energy is not disrupted by nightfall and inclement weather, avoiding the need for expensive energy storage. And it’s especially valuable for isolated areas of the world (parts of Africa and India, for example.)

SSP technically feasible in 10–20 years

However, so far, the SSP concept has lacked the needed in-depth technology,  market, and economic assessment. (I’ve personally been skeptical.)  But on Monday Nov. 14 at a press conference (open to the public) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the National Space Society will announce the findings of an impressive three-year, ten-nation study of space solar power by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), co-chaired by John Mankins, a 25-year NASA veteran who headed NASA’s study of space solar power in the 90s, and Prof. Nobuyuki Kaya, Vice Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University.

Its findings include:

• Space solar power appears to be technically feasible within 10–20 years using technologies existing now in the laboratory;
• It appears to be economically viable in the next 1–3 decades under several different scenarios for future energy markets, including potential government actions to mediate environment/climate change issues;
• Low-cost Earth-to-orbit transportation systems appear to be technically feasible during the coming 20–30 years using technologies existing in the laboratory now;
• Flight experiments are needed, and policy-related and regulatory issues must be resolved.

Occupy space

“The report  gets across one very basic message: in the eyes of the leading experts on aerospace technology worldwide: harvesting solar power in space and transmitting it to earth is no longer science fiction,” says author Howard Bloom in a companion announcement by the Space Development Steering Committee. “It is sound, current-technology-based science fact.  And it is a green energy option we can’t ignore.

“SSP produces no greenhouse gases.  It offers a way out of the trap of climate change. It is supremely sustainable.  It can make us a net energy exporter, a position the United States enjoyed until 1951. And, as a National Space Security Office report on space solar power points out, SSP is an energy source that can end our hemorrhage of cash to hostile oil nations and can save us from the trillion dollar budgets of energy wars. No wonder a recent report from the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Institute concluded that ‘A successful effort,’ in space solar power ‘could provide unprecedented levels of clean and renewable energy.’”

“Without any doubt the components technology for space solar power as well as various system concepts have been developed and tested successfully,” says Dr. Neville I. Marzwell, NASA-JPL Advanced Concepts and Technology Innovation Manager (recently retired). “The next logical steps are the validation of power transmission from space to ground, and power storage at a continuously increasing level to validate the economical analysis and create financial, technical, social, environmental, and political support across the globe. The industrial countries of the world cannot and should not miss this opportunity to meet their energy demand safely while creating financial and job growth.”

“We run on energy like Rome ran on slavery,” says Hoffert.”But we’ve hit an economic, energy and environmental wall. Space-based solar power is a technologically ready path over the wall to sustainable high tech civilization on Earth; an ideologically cross-cutting approach encompassing the military-industrial complex and Occupy Wall Street.

“It can create real jobs, both near- and long-term in orbital light and power industries of the 21st century much as the NASA’s Apollo Program industrialized the South to produce high tech cars and aircraft today. And of course space-based solar power offers a unique challenge to the U.S. in the spirit of Steve Jobs and Silicon Valley: ‘Don’t tell us the sky’s the limit when our footprints are on the Moon.’”

Ref.: John C. Mankins, Editor, Space Solar Power: The First International Assessment of Space Solar Power: Opportunities, Issues and Potential Pathways Forward, International Academy of Astronautics, 2011

Will Obama second Kalam-NSS Initiative while in India?

From: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6886049.cms?prtpage=1

Printed from

India, America join hands to harness solar power
Srinivas Laxman, TNN, Nov 8, 2010, 02.22am IST
MUMBAI: India and USA teamed up on a space-based energy initiative aimed at turning both countries into net energy exporters, 48 hours before US President Barack Obama landed in India.

The project is led by former president of India A P J Abdul Kalam, who was once a staunch critic of the US, and National Space Society (NSS), a non-profit US-based space organization with chapters all over the world including India. The initiative was announced on Thursday at Washington's National Press Club where Kalam and Isro Satellite Centre director T K Alex were present. Known as the Kalam-National Space Society initiative, the mission envisages harvesting solar power in space for use on earth.

Alex is the project's principal investigator from India. Kalam told the US media that a team from Isro has been formed to carry out a feasibility study for this project. He said Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan asked him to take the idea forward after a discussing the project. Referring to the Manmohan Singh-Obama summit in New Delhi on Sunday, Kalam said both were concerned leaders ''interested in energy-related issues and energy independence''. Kalam said it was a 15-year-project. The main challenge is to evolve methods to transmit solar power from space to earth and its distribution. To make it economical, the cost of launching a spacecraft, currently $20,000 a kg, has to be slashed to $2,000 a kg.

Read more: India, America join hands to harness solar power - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6886049.cms?prtpage=1#ixzz14emtVo63

From: http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=1163

NSS-Kalam Energy Initiative To Harvest Solar Power From Space

by Energy Matters

America and India, two nations trying to wean themselves off an unhealthy reliance on fossil fuels, have agreed to work towards a joint space program that would establish solar energy harvesting satellites in orbit around the Earth.
    
As US President Barack Obama visits India, his former counterpart Dr A.P.J. Kalam, eleventh president of India last week addressed the National Press Club along with the National Space Society (NSS) on the subject of space solar power.
    
Dr Kalam is in partnership with Dr. T.K. Alex, Director of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satellite Centre and leader of the Chandrayan-1 project that discovered water on the moon. The project is called the Kalam-NSS Initiative.
   
Although the logistics involved in the production and transfer of space solar power are literally out of this world, Dr Kalam says humanity will have no choice because Earth-bound renewable energy sources will not be able to cope with demand.
   
"By 2050, even if we use every available energy resource we have: clean and dirty, conventional and alternative, solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, coal, oil, and gas, the world will fall short of the energy we need."
  
Kalam believes that utilising off-world solar power has the potential to reverse America’s half a trillion dollar a year balance of payments deficit and to generate a new generation of American jobs. It is, he argues, simply expanding on existing technology that has been in use for decades by both India and America to power satellites sent into space. 
  
Telstar, America’s first commercial satellite, was essentially a "beachball encrusted with square medallions. Those medallions were photovoltaic panels.



From: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/jsp_includes/articlePrint.jsp?storyID=news/asd/2010/11/05/04.xml&headLine=Indian,%20U.S.%20Experts%20Team%20On%20Space%20Solar%20Power


Indian, U.S. Experts Team On Space Solar Power
By Frank Morring, Jr.


Former Indian President A.P.J. Kalam has lent his name to a new cooperative effort by experts in the U.S. and India to advance space solar power (SSP) as a way to improve life on Earth.


Kalam, 79, is a space pioneer who served as the 11th president of India. He and his former associates at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have teamed with the Washington-based National Space Society (NSS) for an initiative aimed at accomplishing the work necessary to field a system of large satellites that would collect solar energy and beam it safely to Earth’s surface.


“A large mission like space solar power will need the combined efforts of many nations,” Kalam said Nov. 4 in a conference call from India. “I am certain that harvesting solar power in space can upgrade the living standard of the human race.”


U.S. Allies


Kalam was joined on the line by John Mankins, a former exploration chief technologist at NASA who is president of the Space Power Association, and T.K. Alex, director of the ISRO’s Satellite Center in Bengaluru. Alex, who led development of the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, will join Mankins as co-principal investigators on the Kalam-National Space Society Energy Initiative.


The group plans a bilateral meeting in Huntsville, Ala., next May to establish a course of action and organizational structure.


While NSS CEO Mark Hopkins says that meeting will be organized around Indian and U.S. participants, plans call for broadening the effort to include other nations — notably Japan, which has done advanced work in space solar power.


Kalam says the topic may be included during President Barack Obama’s upcoming summit with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but a more likely route to the top levels of spacefaring nations will come in presentations at future G-8 and G-20 economic summits.


Ideally, different nations will contribute SSP components based on their particular skills, he says.


For India and the U.S., cooperation in technology development also can work, he adds.


Indian infrastructure


Alex says India already has a significant terrestrial solar power industry based in the country’s north. The nation also is working in multi-junction solar arrays which, while not as advanced as similar technology in the U.S., could lead to the solar-power conversion efficiency needed to make SSP practical. Similarly, Kalam cited India’s work in reusable launch vehicle technology as a way to hold down the cost of getting SSP payloads to orbit, and said that work could go faster if the U.S. and India collaborate.


Mankins cited a “10-10-10” rule for a first prototype in geostationary orbit that could be a goal for the new bilateral initiative.


Such a system would deliver 10 megawatts of power, cost less than $10 billion to build and launch, and be ready in less than 10 years. The system would consist of a large satellite to collect the Sun’s energy and convert it into microwaves, which would be beamed to an antenna on Earth that would collect the microwaves for conversion to electricity and transmission through the existing power grid.


The antenna would be as open as chicken wire, Hopkins says, which would permit farmers to grow crops under it. And the beam would be so diffuse that “you can walk through the beam, even if you’re naked, and it’s not going to hurt you.”

A.P.J. Kalam photo: India government



From: http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/11/07/us-and-india-in-space-and-space-solar-power/
US and India in space (and space solar power?)
November 7, 2010 at 9:52 am · Filed under Other


President Obama is currently in India, where he is expected to formally announce on Monday the removal of the Indian space agency ISRO from a US list that restricts exports of some sensitive technologies. The Entity List, as it is formally known, specifies additional requirements for items beyond what’s already required under export control regulations. Currently ISRO and four organizations within it are on the list, requiring a “case-by-case review” for any item on the Commerce Control List for export to those organizations. That restriction dates back to sanctions placed on India and Pakistan for their nuclear tests in the late 1990s.


That move isn’t unexpected: it had been anticipated for weeks in both the US and India. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Thursday, former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, writing with another former State Department official, R. Nicholas Burns, called on both the White House and Congress to “liberalize U.S. export controls that have an impact on India, including by removing the Indian Space Research Organization (the Indian equivalent to NASA) from the U.S. ‘Entity List.’” However, that appears to be the limit of space-related progress in the president’s visit: Indian media reported last week that it’s unlikely a commercial satellite launch agreement will be completed in time. Such an agreement would make it easier for US-built commercial satellites, or satellites with US-built components, to be launched on Indian vehicles.


A few people, though, are seeking much grander visions of US-Indian cooperation in space. At a press conference in Washington on Thursday, American and Indian officials announced the creation of Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative to promote the development of space-based solar power (SBSP) in the two nations. The near-term goal of the initiative is to arrange a bilateral meeting of Indian and American experts on the topic in May in Huntsville, Alabama, in conjunction with the International Space Development Conference (ISDC), the annual conference of the National Space Society (NSS).


The effort might be dismissed as a minor effort of a few people to promote what’s widely considered a fringe topic, but it does have the backing of a prominent individual on the Indian side: former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who participated in Thursday’s press conference by phone from India. Kalam spoke of the need to increase energy production to meet the needs of a modernizing India, without going into details about how the two countries might cooperation in SBSP beyond holding a joint meeting. Asked if the topic might come up in the meeting between President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Singh in New Delhi, Kalam suggested that it should instead be presented at a future meeting of G8 or G20 nations.


Also unclear is what India would bring to the table in terms of its role in developing a SBSP system. Asked what unique capabilities India could offer, Kalam discussed the development of what he called a “hyperplane”, a reusable spaceplane concept, something he said India could cooperate with the US and other nations on. (Given the difficulties any nation has had in developing RLVs, and the challenges India has faced in even building a cryogenic upper stage for its GSLV expendable rocket, jumping ahead to a “hyperplane” may seem a bit of a stretch.) T.K. Alex, director of the ISRO Satellite Centre and the Indian lead of the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative, said later at the press conference that India could also contribute in the development of high-efficiency and lightweight solar cells. NSS CEO Mark Hopkins suggested a different role for India, saying that “a combination of American technology and the ability of India to do a lot of low-cost manufacturing” could be essential to any future success of SBSP.


From: http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/nov/02/kalam-nss-initiative-to-tap-solar-power-in-space.htm
'Kalam-NSS' initiative to tap solar power in space
November 02, 2010 08:02 IST
Tags: National Space Society, Indian Space Research Organisation, Mark Hopkins, Kalam, NASA
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Former Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam [ Images ] and US' prestigious National Space Society are all set to announce their ambitious joint initiative to tap solar power in space, when President Barack Obama [ Images ] visits the country this weekend.




"The 'Kalam-NSS' Energy Initiative is a transformative idea that can up shift the US and Indian economies by meeting the urgent global need for a scalable, carbon-neutral, green, 24-hr renewable power source," CEO of National Space Society (NSS) Mark Hopkins said.


It is a game-changing technology that addresses energy security, sustainable development, climate change, and multinational cooperation, Hopkins said.


Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ] are expected to discuss joint research and development on energy issues during the former's maiden visit to the country.


"I am convinced that harvesting solar power in space can bring India [ Images ] and United States of America together in whole new ways.


"And I am certain that harvesting solar power in space can upgrade the living standard of the human race," Kalam said.


Dr T K Alex, Director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and John Mankins, a 25-year NASA [ Images ] veteran, are believed to provide the details via electronic feed.


The popular former Indian president would also address a press conference at NSS via phone on November 4.


The next step in the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative will be a NSS joint Indo-American conference on space solar power at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on May 18-22 next year.


Space solar power has the potential to reverse America's half-a-trillion dollar balance of payments a year deficit and to generate a new generation of American jobs, a media release said, adding that it is a source whose basic technology is already here.


US has been harvesting solar power in space and transmitting it to earth since 1962, when 'Telstar', the first commercial satellite, went up in orbit.


Similarly India has been looking to tap solar energy in space since 1975, when its first satellite, 'Aryabhatta A', was introduced,


World electricity demand by the year 2035 is projected to increase by 87 per cent.


"By 2050, even if we use every available energy resource we have: clean and dirty, conventional and alternative, solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear, coal, oil, and gas, the world will fall short of the energy we need," Kalam said.


There is an answer… an energy source that produces no carbon emissions, an energy source that can reach to most distant villages of the world, and an energy source that can turn both countries into net energy and technology exporters, the former president added.

From: http://www.thinkindia.net.in/2010/11/india-and-the-us-to-harvest-solar-power-in-space-.html

India and the U.S. to "Harvest Solar Power in Space"
India and the U.S. have agreed to team up on a space-based energy initiative, reports The Times of India.

This comes as U.S. President Barack Obama is on an official trip to India, aimed at opening up the Indian market for U.S. business.

The Times of India says the project looks to turn both countries into net energy exporters. Named the Kalam-National Space Society initiative, it proposes to harvest solar power in space, for use on earth. Read More

Source: Third Age

From: http://www.next100.com/2010/10/partners-in-space.php

OCT 26 2010

PARTNERS IN SPACE?
Posted by: Jonathan Marshall
When President Obama visits India in a couple of weeks to help cement the two countries’ strategic and economic relationship, he should make room on the agenda for a visionary plan to create a joint space-based solar energy program.

That’s the provocative recommendation of a recent report drafted by a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, and published by the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, a think tank based in New Delhi and funded by India’s defense ministry.

As readers of NEXT100 know, space-based solar energy is an unproven but nearly unlimited source of clean, renewable energy. Photovoltaic panels in orbit around the Earth would capture intense solar energy around the clock—with no down time for clouds or night—and then beam it down to an earth receiving station in the form of microwaves. The energy would then be converted into electrical current suitable for the power grid.

India has a strong interest in space solar power, thanks to its active space program and limited available land for terrestrial solar. The country’s former president, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, told a group of space experts in Boston three years ago that India is developing an inexpensive reusable launch vehicle that could give "mankind the benefit of space solar-power stations in geostationary and other orbits.”

The new think-tank report maintains that a joint program aimed at establishing a commercially viable space solar industry by 2025 could be “the next major step in the Indo-US strategic partnership.” It would help “solve the linked problems of energy security, development and climate change” while giving India a constructive and peaceful direction for its rising space program.

If successful, the partnership would “position the US and Indian technical and industrial bases to enjoy a competitive edge in what is expected to be a significant and profitable market,” the report adds.

“It will also become one of the grandest and most ambitious humanitarian and environmentalist causes that will be sure to excite a generation as did the Apollo program that put a man on the moon.”

The two countries are longstanding partners when it comes to space science. The United States helped India launch its first generation of satellites in the 1970s, and India returned the favor by carrying NASA’s Moon Minerology Mapper aboard a moon-orbiting satellite last year.

A key stumbling block—aside from the Obama administration’s apparent disinterest in space solar—is India’s continuing refusal to sign the Missile Technology Control Regime, which seeks to curb the proliferation of missile technology. Unless it signs, the United States can’t share rocket technology with India.



See the press conference here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4X8O0k0pQ

Space Based Solar Power for India - US Strategic Partnership

Just two months to the day before President Obama visits India, India' premier strategic think tank publishes this
"Skies No Limit: Space-Based Solar Power as the Next Major step in the Indo-US strategic Partnership"
http://www.idsa.in/occasionalpapers/SkysNoLimit_pgarretson_2010

Providing a blueprint for binational cooperation to address the linked problems of energy security, sustainable development and climate change!

Renewable Energy Partnership? SBSP & India

From: http://www.idsa.in/publications/stratcomments/PeterGarretson220509.htm

Space as the Source of Our Future Energy
Peter Garretson
May 22, 2009
The idea is to launch giant orbiting solar collectors into space, where there is no night, and beam the power to receivers on the ground, where it is fed as electricity to the grid. Long championed by former President Dr. Abdul Kalam, and the Aerospace Society of India (AeSI), the idea is seen as a long-term solution for energy security and climate change, and the most environmentally benign and scalable renewable energy option, which deserves its own focused development programme.
Such satellites would be the largest, most ambitious space projects ever contemplated. A single solar power satellite would be several kilometres long, with a transmitting antenna about a kilometre across, and generate between one and ten Gigawatts (as much power as 10 nuclear power plants). It might weigh tens of thousands of metric tons and would require a fleet of reusable space vehicles to construct. Follow-on designs might use materials from the Moon.
Existing communications satellites use a similar process, using the power of the Sun on their solar arrays to power a radio transmitter for sending radio and television signals. But the small antenna on communications satellites prevents them from being able to focus a beam for power-beaming. To beam power, the transmitter must be increased to almost a kilometre long, and a special receiver, a rectifying antenna, or rectenna is required. The rectenna would be several kilometres across, about the size of a municipal airport, made of a thin metal mesh, and would be 80 per cent transparent to sunlight, allowing the land underneath it to be used for pastoral, agricultural use or production of algae biodiesel. Far from some scary space-ray, the large transmitting and receiving antenna, the high conversion efficiency, and the constant availability allow the beam to be very low power—about a sixth the strength of sunlight on a warm sun tan beach day. Except that sunlight contains high frequency ultraviolet rays which can strip off electrons in our cells and cause cancer. The beam from a Solar Power Satellite would be of low frequency, very similar to current wi-fi devices, and is non-ionizing and not dangerous like UV.
Proponents feel it is an attractive option for several reasons. One, by 2025 the world will have added another two billion people, its energy needs will have doubled, the combustion of fossil fuels will continue to alter the composition of the atmosphere with concerns about climate change, and by mid-century we would have exhausted most of our fossil fuels. By mid-century India alone would have added 300,000,000 people, expanded its electrical generating capacity eleven-fold, from 121 GWe to 1350 GWe, moved upwards of 60 per cent of its population to cities, and exhausted all or almost all of its fossil resources. How are we to maintain a sustainable civilization if we remain a closed system and never access the vast wealth of all the rest of the universe?
In space faring advocate Mike Snead’s excellent paper, “The End of Easy Energy and What to Do About It,” he lays out the need and opportunity for Space Solar Power. Today the total world needs about 81 Billion Barrel of Oil Equivalent (BOE) thermal or about 15 TWe. And by 2100, to complete development to the “gold standard” of 30 BOE per capita, will require an expansion to probably 300 billion BOE, or roughly 55 TWe. By 2100 we will probably be about 50 years beyond the age of oil, and will have had to increase our renewable/sustainable energy 26 times. Even with a massive up-scaling of terrestrial renewable energy in the most optimistic estimates, the deficit is still close to 60 per cent. 55TWe is just very hard to come by on Earth. But what if we go to space, where energy is abundant, where the Sun never sets and delivers up to 9 times as much energy per unit area as on Earth, and 24 hours a day? There, in the Geostationary belt alone, is thought to be in excess of 177TWe of exploitable green solar energy—and it will be there for at least a billion years. If we could provide 55 GWe of green energy we fix our climate and energy problems in the long run, and we would grow the Gross World Product (GWP) over ten-fold. Imagine a world greater than an order of magnitude wealthier, a world fully developed with the security that a high standard of living brings. Can we afford to ignore a resource that vast? Does not extraordinary reward justify extraordinary effort? Those in the space movement think it cannot be ignored and that we need not only have to look beneath our feet for our energy, but can look to the stars for renewable, sustainable, scalable energy, and for a cleaner, brighter tomorrow.

Space Solar Power---Money on the Table!

From: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10218788-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Pacific Gas & Electric is going to great lengths--all the way to space--in its quest for renewable energy.
The California utility on Monday said that it will seek approval from regulators to purchase 200 megawatts worth of solar energy delivered from stealth space solar power company Solaren over 15 years The idea of space-based solar power (SBSP) is to place a device in space that can convert solar energy into a usable form and have it transmitted wirelessly to Earth. Scientists have thought to capture solar energy from space for decades but has it has never been done commercially.
Solaren proposes placing solar panels on a satellite to generate electricity that is converted to radio frequency energy on-board and sent to a ground station in California. The receiver then converts the radio frequency energy to electricity and it is fed into the power grid.
The goal of the project is to provide electricity to PG&E by 2016, said Solaren CEO Gary Spirnak in a Q and A posted on PG&E's company blog.
"While a system of this scale and exact configuration has not been built, the underlying technology is very mature and is based on communications satellite technology. For over 45 years, satellites have collected solar energy in earth orbit via solar cells, and converted it to radio frequency energy for transmissions to earth receive stations. This is the same energy conversion process Solaren uses for its (space solar power) plant," he said.
PG&E, which has significant investments in different forms of renewable energy, said that there is no risk to the utility since it only pays for power produced.
The advantage of space solar power is that energy can be harnessed at all times, even at night or when it's cloudy. Solaren's contract calls for it to deliver baseload power, the electricity needed to meet customer demand.
In its posting, PG&E executives said that generating space solar power cost effectively is a major challenge, but the people at Solaren have a lot of experience in space and satellites. The field also can also draw on years of research.
Another company called Space Energy has been formed to also tap solar energy from space using a similar technique as Solaren.

From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30198977/

PG&E makes deal for space solar power
Utility to buy orbit-generated electricity from Solaren in 2016, at no risk

By Alan Boyle
Science editor
msnbc.com
updated 10:41 p.m. ET April 13, 2009

California's biggest energy utility announced a deal Monday to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity from a startup company that plans to beam the power down to Earth from outer space, beginning in 2016.
San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric said it was seeking approval from state regulators for an agreement to purchase power over a 15-year period from Solaren Corp., an 8-year-old company based in Manhattan Beach, Calif. The agreement was first reported in a posting to Next100, a Weblog produced by PG&E.
Solaren would generate the power using solar panels in Earth orbit and convert it to radio-frequency transmissions that would be beamed down to a receiving station in Fresno, PG&E said. From there, the energy would be converted into electricity and fed into PG&E's power grid.

PG&E is pledging to buy the power at an agreed-upon rate, comparable to the rate specified in other agreements for renewable-energy purchases, company spokesman Jonathan Marshall said. Neither PG&E nor Solaren would say what that rate was, due to the proprietary nature of the agreement. However, Marshall emphasized that PG&E would make no up-front investment in Solaren's venture.
"We've been very careful not to bear risk in this," Marshall told msnbc.com.
Solaren's chief executive officer, Gary Spirnak, said the project would be the first real-world application of space solar power, a technology that has been talked about for decades but never turned into reality.
"While a system of this scale and exact configuration has not been built, the underlying technology is very mature and is based on communications satellite technology," he said in a Q&A posted by PG&E. A study drawn up for the Pentagon came to a similar conclusion in 2007. However, that study also said the cost of satellite-beamed power would likely be significantly higher than market rates, at least at first.
In contrast, Spirnak said Solaren's system would be "competitive both in terms of performance and cost with other sources of baseload power generation."
Solaren's director for energy services, Cal Boerman, said he was confident his company would be able to deliver the power starting in mid-2016, as specified in the agreement. "There are huge penalties associated with not performing," he told msnbc.com. He said PG&E would be "our first client" but was not expected to be the only one.
The biggest questions surrounding the deal have to do with whether Solaren has the wherewithal, the expertise and the regulatory support to get a space-based solar power system up and running in seven years. "Quite a few hurdles there to leap," Clark Lindsey of RLV and Space Transport News observed.

In the Q&A, Spirnak said his company currently consists of about 10 engineers and scientists, and plans to employ more than 100 people a year from now. He said each member of the Solaren team had at least 20 years of experience in the aerospace industry, primarily with Hughes Aircraft Co. and the U.S. Air Force. Spirnak himself is a former Air Force spacecraft project engineer with experience at Boeing Satellite Systems as well.
"The impetus for forming Solaren was the convergence of improved high-energy conversion devices, heavy-launch vehicle developments, and a revolutionary Solaren-patented SSP [space solar power] design that is a significant departure from past efforts and makes SSP not only technically but economically viable," Spirnak said.
Boerman said Solaren's plan called for four or five heavy-lift launches that would put the elements of the power-generating facility in orbit. Those elements would dock automatically in space to create the satellite system. Boerman declined to describe the elements in detail but noted that each heavy-lift launch could put 25 tons of payload into orbit.
"We've talked with United Launch Alliance, and gotten an idea of what's involved and what the cost is," he said.
The plan would have to be cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration as well as the Federal Communications Commission and federal and state safety officials, Boerman said.
In the nearer term, PG&E's deal would have to be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, Marshall said.
He said the space-power agreement was part of PG&E's effort to forge long-term deals for renewable energy, including deals for terrestrial-based solar power. Marshall pointed out that space-based and terrestrial-based solar power generation were "really very different animals."

Unlike ground-based solar arrays, space satellites could generate power 24 hours a day, unaffected by cloudy weather or Earth's day-night cycle. The capacity factor for a ground-based solar is typically less than 25 percent. In contrast, the capacity factor for a power-generating satellite is expected to be 97 percent, Marshall said.
"The potential for generating much larger amounts of power in space for any given area of solar cells makes this a very promising opportunity," Marshall said.
He said the agreement called for 800 gigawatt-hours of electricity to be provided during the first year of operation, and 1,700 gigawatt-hours for subsequent years. The larger figure is roughly equal to the annual consumption of 250,000 average homes.
PG&E has 5.1 million electric customer accounts and 4.2 million natural-gas customer accounts in Northern and Central California.

From: http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=396

Space Based Solar Power A Reality By 2016?
by Energy Matters

The idea of harvesting solar power from space via orbiting solar farms has been around for a while, but may be closer to reality than many of us realised.The solar energy available in space is up to ten times greater than on Earth as there's no atmospheric or cloud interference to contend with, no real night and no seasons. This means that if solar power could somehow be harvested from space, it could be a baseload resource instead of an intermittent source of power.Baseload issues are one the last frontiers in terms of many forms of renewable energy and one of the few remaining arguments supporting the need for fossil fuel or nuclear based power.But how do you get the power from the solar panels affixed to orbiting platforms back to Earth? The general concept has been to convert it to radio frequency energy for transmission to a receiving station, which then converts it back into electricity.While this technology may seem decades away, perhaps only possible next century; US company Portland Gas & Electric is seeking approval from regulators for a power purchase agreement with Solaren Corp., a Southern California company that has contracted to deliver 200 megawatts of clean, renewable power from space over a 15 year period, commencing in 2016.Solaren will place solar panels in earth orbit, transmit the energy to a receiving station in Fresno County, which will then be converted to electricity and fed into PG&E's power grid.If successful, the pilot project could address issues such as the use of environmentally sensitive areas for sprawling solar farms. However, one issue that hasn't been addressed is the energy required to produce and put these solar panels into space versus the amount of energy they may generate - and that's where space elevators may come into play.