Study: Space-based solar energy as a "game changer" for Europe's climate targets
Europe wants to be climate-neutral by the middle of the century. Solar energy generated in space could make a decisive contribution to achieving this goal.
(Image: Dragon Claws/Shutterstock.com)
Space-based solar energy could ensure that 80 percent fewer solar and wind power plants would have to be built in Europe by 2050 in order to achieve the goal of emission-free energy generation. This has been determined by a British-Chinese research group, and therefore calls the technology a potential "game changer". If some fundamental hurdles are overcome in its further development, it could ensure that Europe could save up to 15 percent of the costs of energy generation, storage, and infrastructure every year in 25 years, which would be 35.9 billion euros. Depending on the time of year, however, electricity storage in the form of hydrogen, for example, could be fundamental.
Continuous solar energy for the earth
The generation of solar power in space for consumption on Earth, or space-based solar power (SBSP), is so far little more than a concept. It envisages satellites with large solar panels being positioned in orbit around the Earth, where they can continuously generate solar energy. They could send this energy to the earth's surface via microwaves, where it would be available around the clock as base load energy. Technically, the basic questions have been answered, but the effort, costs, and risks involved in setting up these systems are enormous. The team led by Wei He from the Department of Engineering at King's College London has therefore investigated the overall potential of the technology.
The team analyzed the economic consequences of using two different approaches to space-based solar energy, which originate from the US space agency NASA. One envisages a flat solar array design similar to those on Earth, while the other involves a swarm of small solar power plants that send the electricity generated to a central satellite that transmits it to Earth. The former is therefore closer to operational readiness and could be realized to enable further important development work. On this basis, the second concept could then make the savings identified possible and play a decisive role in ensuring that Europe actually switches to renewable energies by the middle of the century.
Videos by heise
The results of the study are now in line with the expectations of the European Space Agency (ESA), which identified a huge potential for space-based solar energy three years ago. Thanks to the technology, 800 terawatt hours (TWh) of cleaner base-load energy could come from space every year from 2050, which would be around a third of all the electricity generated in the European Union in 2020, it said at the time. Wei He's team is now also pointing out that new types of nuclear power plants could be commercially operational sooner, and together they could provide extensive base-load energy by the middle of the century. The research work has now been published in the specialist journal Joule.
(mho)
