I sound like a Sun Ra song. I learned about space-based solar this year as I’ve researched more about energy. It involves having satellites gather energy in orbit then beam it back to panels on Earth. A few companies working in the space: Aetherflux, Reflect Orbital, Virtus Solis, Overview Energy, Space Solar, TerraSpark. I’m going to write about other fundamental energy processes and sources in another post, but this is an example of experimental paths forming.
This is important because the biggest critique of solar is that it’s intermittent. Beaming it down takes advantage of the sun always being up there even if it’s not shining on our part of the planet. Overview Energy is doing safer beaming with near-infrared light that has less room for harm (what they call passive safety) with a focus on delivering commercial grid energy. Let’s look into how this works at a high level.
Overview Energy puts a few satellites into geosynchronous orbit. This means the satellites follow close to the 24-hour daily orbit to stay in the relatively same corresponding area on Earth. The satellites have solar panels strapped to them that collect energy. That energy powers laser diodes built into the satellite. Those lasers send a wide, low-intensity beam down to preexisting solar farms while being below eye-safe limits for any of us that may cross its path. The satellite’s sensors use a homing beacon on the ground so the satellite can continually adjust its aim and reliably hit its target panels.
This system keeps solar farms running during nighttime while covering the Earth with about 3 small mass-produced satellites. That second half is important since engineering doesn’t stop things from failing. A constellation of mass-produced satellites is easier to deploy and provides backup coverage for when any go down. The constellation and homing beacon also let the near-infrared beam swap to other solar farms that don’t have clouds or other blockers in their way.
Here’s a demo of Overview Energy successfully proving their system on a regular plane, a Cessna Caravan, that flew up to 16.5k ft. A first for high-power wireless power transfer from any moving platform.
from Montez ★