Virtus Solis is a funded startup working to develop space based solar power. They would leverage the low cost launch of the SpaceX Starship and modular satellites to enable power to be beamed from space at lower cost than coal or natural gas power.
Twenty five thousand 1-kilowatt solar power modules would be launched in each reusable SpaceX Starship launch. They would be assembled in space like legos. The orbit for each array would provide power for about 12 hours of a day. Two arrays would provide 7X24 hour power.
Today, the per kilogram cost of a Falcon 9 launch is $1520. Starship’s larger size would allow it to drop that down by 40% to $970 on day 1 (assuming the total cost of launch for both remains at $100 million). SpaceX Super Heavy Starship, with improved Raptor engines, could launch 300 tons in expendable mode or 180 tons in reusable mode. The expendable Starship would be launching for about $330 per kilogram. A fully reusable Starship that could be flow 20 times (like a Falcon 9 booster) would bring the cost down to about $33 per kilogram.
Space-based solar power essentially consists of three elements:
* collecting solar energy in space with reflectors or inflatable mirrors onto solar cells or heaters for thermal systems
* wireless power transmission to Earth via microwave or laser
* receiving power on Earth via a rectenna, a microwave antenna
International Space Based Solar Projects
A Kyoto Japan Group, led by Prof Shinohara, plans an experiment around fiscal 2025 to transmit power from orbital small satellites ground. Small satellites will be used to send it to ground-based receiving stations from hundreds of kilometers away.
There is about 30 megawatts of solar power deployed in space right now. However, the power is being used in space and is not being transmitted back to the Earth. The 4000+ SpaceX Starlink satellites each have about 7 kilowatt hours of solar panels.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology also have space based solar projects.
Chongqing University is developing space based solar technology in China.
In 2022, the European Space Agency announced its plans to launch several Solar Power Satellites under the name Solaris. It is stated that these installations would be about 10 times greater than the current ISS (International Space Station). The whole network of these Oribtal Powerplants would produce about 1.000 TWh, which comes down to a third of the whole energy consumption of the European Union
The Japan group successfully ran microwave power transmission experiments horizontally in 2015 and vertically in 2018, both over a distance of 50 meters. Vertical transmission with distances between 1 km and 5 km will be attempted in the future.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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