Is Space-Based Solar a Good Idea?

Thanks to Sam and the Space Solar team for talking to me this week about their work 🚀

when i was around 7, i was building my first crystal radio set. it blew my mind to realize the radiowaves themselves carried energy. so i pulled out my invention book and drew a satellite in the sky, beaming down AM radio waves to a big ol' dish on the ground. years later, when i learned that i wasn't the one who actually invented the concept, i decided to become a bass player.

I have no issue with the technology involved but I have a hard time believing space-based solar would have a lower total cost of electricity than a land-based solar farm with 10 times the solar panels and batteries to offset the night and weather issues. Also having high-voltage DC lines between utilities would IMHO be far more cost-effective the space-based solar for pseudo base load.

As someone with a physics background I see some potential red flags that weren't really addressed in the video. The idea is to take sunlight that would not otherwise fall incident on the surface of the earth, and redirect that energy so that it does (albeit captured and re-transmitted as RF). Are there not concerns that we're ADDING energy to a largely closed system in an era where climate change is the number one concern? What about the surface directly below the beam? Are the microwaves not heating the water molecules that happen to find themselves in the path of the beam? This will be exacerbated by placing the collection antenna on the ocean, but even on land, the water in the atmosphere will be heated by the beam. Even if the heating is small, its heat that wouldn't have ever been part of the sun-earth system before, and will have a net heating effect. Am I missing something? This just seems like a HORRIBLE idea for combating climate change, existing only to drum up investment cash and line people's pockets.

Clearly there's a huge market potential for space based energy production. I think I might have to try and develop my idea for a wind farm in space.

That could never be weaponized…….

Surely micro meteorite showers would pepper any solar array of significant size ?

Aiming a 2.45GHz Microwave beam at the ocean, could cause excessive water heating and evaporation. H20 is also one of the most intensive greenhouse effect when in atmosphere. Probably a better idea to aim these at Deserts where there are low quantities of liquid already.

As someone working in the phased array industry, I think I'd safely bet on this never happening.

Powerbeaming has always just been a matter of time. But good to hear they're actual projects in progress not just ideation. Personally i can't wait to sacrifice Mercury to the dyson!

If you put 6 x 13 kms of solar PV in the sea, where the collector is going, even using conservative efficiencies and assuming only 8 hours full production a day, we get 5.2GW, and nothing has to be sent to space at all.

When I was designing and building a solar home in 1982, panels cost $100/Watt, when in Seattle electricity cost 1.5 cents/kWh

I would imagine that there would be enough “leakage” that a smart enterprising person could pirate a significant amount of energy.

Sounds like an extremely effective weapon. 😂😂😂

Thanks you for the "bad software engineer" comment. It is rare to hear anyone actually saying it aloud and as fact, even though quite clearly it is.

I did research on this in the 70s. Excited to see that it is on the cusp of happening finally. I do worry about "space junk" and solar wind issues still

Sim City 2000 taught me this was a bad idea 😊

So... Based on the efficiency numbers given... For every useful units of energy the sun give to the system, we will get ~0.25 units as electricity on Earth. Which is similar to high quality PV solar under ideal conditions. That mean we want to do this for 3 majors reasons: 1) Reliability: Since we can't control the weather on Earth, this will provide energy 100% of the time. 2) Flexibility: Since you can steer the beam, you can provide energy to a wide area of the globe the system is facing. 3) Telecom: You can leverage the system to also increase the bandwidth for geo-stat communication. (Basically making a huge relay station) Bonus: You get to incentivize the space economy, promote innovations & efficiency gain which will help us develop the Earth-Moon orbital Economic zone. So I'm for it.

I like the idea where it can supply energy where the sun isn't shing and the wind blowing to anywhere on earth it was needed. So night-time solar energy at a cost equivalent to terrestial solar.

Thank you for this fascinating new video!