The Global Space Solar Race Is Heating Up, & NASA Holds The Keys

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The emerging field of space solar should have a spot on the federal energy policy to-do list, considering its potential for 24/7 baseload power generation. NASA also has two technologies in the works that researchers have identified as keys to unlocking the riches of space-based solar power. Still, the odds are against the US playing a significant role in the global space solar race, considering the topsy-turvy state of affairs over at the White House, where US President Donald Trump lives rent-free in a grass-covered, gold-plated world of his own invention.

Space Solar Is A Real Thing That Is Happening, Just Like All Your Grass

Grass has been much in the news this week, after the President touched upon the subject during a live television appearance in Washington, DC. However, let’s get to the latest space solar news first.

Space-based solar power refers to technology that enables solar energy to be beamed down from the Sun to Earth on a 24/7 basis, regardless of the weather or time of day. The technology pieces are at hand and the field is attracting investor interest as well as government support, with Europe, China, and Japan among the hotspots (see more space solar background here).

Here in the US, the Department of Energy continues to provide lip service to space solar on its website, but the action steps are spread among multiple federal agencies, all of which are subject to the whims of a Commander-in-Chief who appears to be increasingly out of touch with his surroundings.

Returning to the topic of space solar, though, let’s be fair. If the President or anyone else in a position of authority suddenly began talking about space solar just a few years ago, they may have easily sparked a dementia alert on social media. The renowned US author Isaac Asimov popularized the idea of sending concentrated beams of solar energy down to Earth from outer space back in the 1940s, but even well into this century the goal of freeing the Earth from the on the on-again, off-again vagaries of ambient sunlight seemed far out of reach.

The US Was A Space Solar Leader

Much water has passed under the bridge since 2011, when the philanthropists Donald and Brigitte Bren kickstarted action in the US space solar field with a donation to CalTech totaling more than $100 million. “Northrup Grumman chipped in $12.5 million for several years, and the the US Air Force and the US Navy have also been exploring the space solar field,” CleanTechnica noted last year.

Leading up to this year, US Department of Energy has also played a key role through its support for perovskite solar cell research, among other fields. Last year NASA took stock of the situation and noted that their current portfolio of activities included wireless power beaming among other supportive technologies, though direct funding for specific space-to-Earth activity was not in the cards.

With NASA and DOE joining other federal agencies under the Trump chopping block, the odds are against further action on the part of the US government, at least for the time being.

NASA Still Has A Part To Play

That leaves the field wide open for other nations to pile on, and a newly published study from a research team at King’s College London has just added fuel to the fire.

“Space-based solar panels could enable solar power to be harvested continuously instead of only when sunlight reaches Earth, reducing Europe’s need for Earth-based wind and solar by 80%,” Kings College explains.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Joule under the title, “Assess space-based solar power for European-scale power system decarbonization.”

Of course there’s a catch, and that’s where NASA comes back into the picture. Kings College notes that if space solar is to play a significant role in Europe’s 2050 decarbonization goal, two of NASA’s supportive technologies must be called into action, the Innovative Heliostat Swarm and the Mature Planar Array.

Neither one is in a ready state at this time. “The heliostat design is in the early stages of development but has higher potential to continuously capture solar energy, whereas the simpler planar array is closer to being technologically ready but can only capture solar energy around 60% of the time,” Kings College observes.

Even 60% of the time sounds a lot better than the limited availability of sunlight on Earth, but the numbers don’t work out economically, which leaves the Innovative Heliostat Swarm to hold the torch. Based on costs projected by NASA, the Kings College team assessed that the heliostat design would outperform both wind and terrestrial solar by 2050.

“Overall, the model estimated that the heliostat design would reduce total system costs by 7%–15%, offset up to 80% of wind and solar, and reduce battery usage by over 70%, though hydrogen storage would still be vital in the winter months for some regions,” the school summarized.

Still, Mature Planar Array fans need not lose hope. The research team supports the idea of deploying near-term technological readiness as a stepping stone to longer-term solutions.

What’s All This About Grass, Then?

Whether or not any of NASA’s space solar technology is available to anyone, anywhere, is up to the Commander-in-Chief. However, the current priority of the day appears to be grass, grass, and more grass.

The urgent need for grass was on full display on Thursday, when the President went on live television to speak about the crisis in Washington, DC. Or not, as the case may be.

Whether it was a simple failure to read the room, additional evidence of a slide into dementia, or something else entirely, the President — who recently ordered the Rose Garden grass to be replaced with stone — used the occasion to pledge a soup-to-nuts makeover of all the parks in Washington, DC with brand new grass, and not just any old new grass. In widely reported remarks, he promised a leveling up to the standard of a Trump National Golf Club, such as it is (for the record, there is more than one Trump National Golf Club in the US).

Thursday’s rumination upon grass was more than a little off-topic considering the chaotic state of affairs in the nation’s capitol, where a Soviet-style takeover of the local police department is well underway complete with military occupiers helicoptered in from at least four states — Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina — that tried and failed to take DC by force all the way back in 1860. Whelp, second time’s a charm.

Nevertheless, the President insisted on drawing attention to, of all things, grass. “We’re going to be re-grassing all your parks, all brand new sprinkler systems, the best that you can buy,” the President said.

“I know more about grass than any human being I think anywhere in the world,” he continued, adding that grass “has a life. You know that? Grass has a life. We have a life, and grass has a life.”

You can say that again.

Image: Space solar technology could provide the Earth with 24/7 power, regardless of the weather or the season (via CalTech).