Iceland plans to harvest solar power from space

In a move to revolutionize energy collection and reduce dependence on non-renewable sources, Iceland could become the first country to harness solar energy from space. Iceland’s Transition Labs sustainability initiative is collaborating with domestic energy company Reykjavik Energyt and UK-based Space Solar to develop a solar power plant outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Interesting Engineering reported on November 4.

Space Solar’s first plant is designed to have an initial capacity of 30 MW, providing reliable continuous power, unaffected by weather or time of day. The project aims to provide cheap energy all day long, setting a new standard for renewable energy. Each 30 MW solar farm will be launched into orbit in a single launch using SpaceX’s Starship super rocket. Starting in 2030, the system could produce enough electricity to meet the needs of 1,500 – 3,000 households. Photovoltaic panels in space will collect sunlight and transmit it as radio waves to a ground station to convert it back into electricity to feed into the grid.

The design and construction of the pilot plant will cost $800 million. It is expected that the system will provide electricity at a cost of 1/4 of nuclear power, at 2.2 billion USD/gigawatt, helping to compete with renewable energy sources on Earth. Space Solar’s power plant will be created from modular core building blocks that can be assembled into solar energy collection systems of many different sizes. They can operate at different altitudes and provide electricity to many countries at the same time.

Independent analysis by Imperial College London shows that adding 8 GW of space-based solar power to the UK power mix could save more than $5.2 billion in annual costs. For Transition Labs, the joint project between Reykjavik Energy and Space Solar is an important step towards full-scale deployment. “Reykjavik Energy’s focus on climate technology coupled with its experience in carbon storage through its partnership with Climeworks make it the right partner for the first phase of Space Solar’s project,” said Kjartan commented Örn Ólafsson, managing director of Transition Labs.

Space Solar aims to increase production to meet global energy demand. Their power transmission technology, developed with $6.4 million in engineering research, will provide a safe, scalable and affordable option to meet minimum 24-hour electricity needs. /7.

Earlier this year, a California Institute of Technology experiment demonstrated that orbital power transmission technology is feasible, but only at the level of sending a few milliwatts to Earth. The proposal in Iceland would need to provide billions of times more electricity. As the space power plant cluster expands, Iceland, Canada, and northern Japan are potential locations for power receiving stations. Space Solar will increase capacity to the gigawatt level by 2036.