The renewable energy revolution is running out of land. Building out utility-scale solar and wind farms requires massive tracts of land that are often in competition with other needs – like agricultural operations – and which frequently face major legal and political pushback from communities in the areas targeted for development. All of this is majorly slowing down clean energy buildout at a critical moment for energy security and climate action.
There are a lot of creative solutions under development for solving this issue, such as integrating solar farms and food farms into one synergistic package – a promising practice known as agrivoltaics. But to solve this major space jam, many experts are reaching for the stars. In fact, Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) is likely just around the corner.
After years of accelerating competition to develop viable space-based solar farm models, it looks like the technology’s big moment has already arrived. An increasing amount of studies are finding that the futuristic approach is viable, and very needed to meet energy security needs as energy demand trends spike around the world as a result of the AI boom.
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By putting solar panels into the Earth’s orbit, not only would we solve a major issue for land competition, it would also sidestep the other major issue faced by solar power – variability. The intermittency of clean energy supplies poses a major threat to energy security in places where grids have crept closer to 100% renewable resources. But while terrestrial solar and wind farms are dependent on the weather, the season, and the time of day, SBSP could beam round-the-clock carbon-free electricity straight to power grids. The sun would never set on a solar panel in space, making it a 24/7 baseload of clean energy power.
Plus, solar panels in space would be dispatchable. With each solar satellite capable of viewing a full quadrant of the globe, they would be able to beam energy straight to the grids where it is needed. This ability to switch between grids and nations in real time would be a game-changer for energy security, further reducing the need for energy storage.
And this model is now both technologically and economically viable, according to the World Economic Forum. To be sure, up-front costs remain high for these lofty projects, but a recent study found that with the right policy and financial support, small-scale SBSP could be cost-competitive with other commercial power sources as soon as 2040. The report, published this month by Frazer-Nash Consultancy, found that SBSP could be directly connected to current power grids through existing wind farms in the United Kingdom, making the approach both feasible and relatively affordable.
Installing satellite receivers (known as rectennas) in the UK’s current offshore wind farms “would allow them to use the same grid connections already in place at those sites,” Interesting Engineering reported this week. “The rectennas would receive microwave beams transmitted from satellites in geostationary orbit and convert them directly into grid-ready electricity.” Moreover, rectennas are transparent, meaning that they can also be installed on farms or co-located with traditional solar farms, so there’s little concern for land use conflict or competition.
The potential output and impact of SBSP is enormous. According to a 2025 study from King’s College London, space-based solar power could reduce Europe’s need for land-based renewable energy by up to 80 percent, and also reduce energy storage needs by more than two-thirds. And it would accomplish all of that while also reducing the overall cost of Europe’s energy system, as avoiding expenditures on “energy generation, storage and network infrastructure costs” would save an estimated 35.9 billion euros (41.7 U.S. Dollars) per year.
The high energy density of SBSP means that it’s also a major cost-cutter in terms of resource use. According to the World Economic Forum, “an SBSP system requires orders of magnitude fewer critical minerals to provide the same continuous power as a terrestrial solution with large-scale energy storage.” With its superior resource efficiency, baseload power production, low lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, and dispatchability, it seems clear that SBSP will be a critical part of a global solution to skyrocketing energy demand and climate pressures.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com