As ministers target reducing industrial energy costs, stablising the grid, and rebuilding British industry, the Space Energy Initiative highlights the huge potential of space-based solar power and calls for government to co-fund a first orbital demonstrator.
The Space Energy Initiative (SEI) has published a new whitepaper making the case for space-based solar power (SBSP) as a firm, sovereign and low-cost source of clean electricity for the UK. As the government plans, under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, to reindustrialise Britain, strengthen energy security and bring down the cost of energy, SBSP has so much to offer. With SpaceX proposing capacity to launch 100 GigaWatts/year within five years and China aiming for a GigaWatt scale space solar power system for orbital compute in their five-year plan, the key technical and economic barriers are being removed. There are clear pathways toward SBSP being the cheapest form of power for the planet, making this an important option for the UK.
Space Solar, an SEI member and the company building the industry-leading CASSIOPeiA satellite, is backing the paper’s call for the government to show the support to de-risk investment and to co-fund a first orbital demonstrator.
The UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world, challenging its ambition to be a competitive home for AI and advanced manufacturing. The paper argues that SBSP technology can answer this challenge, as the only energy source that scores strongly against all seven tests of an ideal source, from reliability and affordability through to sovereignty, scalability, exportability, and grid value. The stresses to the grid caused by unpredictable renewables and the cooling challenges of nuclear with drought are just two recent problems highlighted for UK energy production. We need all clean energy technologies, but SBSP has a range of attributes that can enable the UK to succeed.
Space Solar’s analysis points to a levelised cost of around £30/MWh at today’s launch costs, below every firm source and well below the true system cost of every variable source. As launch costs fall, this drops towards £10/MWh. Analysis by Imperial College London finds that every 2GW of SBSP installed could save the UK energy system between £1bn and £2bn a year by enabling export, allowing beam switching around grid congestion points, and reducing the storage, back-up and overbuild that intermittent renewables require.
SBSP captures uninterrupted sunlight in orbit and beams it to ground receivers sited near where demand is, delivering continuous power day and night in all weather. The paper stresses that the technology needs no scientific breakthroughs, as every subsystem has already been demonstrated. The task now is engineering and scaling rather than discovery, and that scaling is happening in key areas of launch and space rated photovoltaics through the activities of SpaceX, other heavy reusable launch companies, and China. Space-based solar power is coming very quickly and it is the scalable, reliable and affordable route to sustainable and high growth future.
With 99.9% of the energy in the solar system in the sun, those that most effectively harness that energy in space could be those that really succeed in the 21st century. The UK currently holds real advantage through Space Solar’s patented CASSIOPeiA architecture and strong supply chains across key areas from robotics to semiconductors, space, and energy systems.
The UK needs scalable energy solutions and with public support to de-risk investment, and enable a first demonstrator, the UK can support re-industrialisation, AI resilient supply chains, jobs and energy sovereignty to enable Andy Burnham’s vision.
Martin Soltau, Co-CEO of Space Solar, said: “Our market leading CASSIOPeiA design offers continuous power with the reliability of nuclear but at a fraction of the cost, and with no need for water cooling or waste disposal. We have the supply chain skills and expertise across the UK to be a global leader in space-based solar power. A first orbital demonstrator is the essential step to positioning Britain to capture this unique opportunity creating thousands of skilled jobs and a source of clean, abundant, affordable and sovereign power. It delivers directly on the government’s urgent priorities for energy security, re-industrialisation and growing prosperity for all regions of Britain. That is a decision for the coming months, not years from now.”
The full whitepaper, The Case for Space Based Solar Power, is available from the Space Energy Initiative.