Hardware Podcasts

Beaming 24/7 solar… from space

Catalyst · 10 Aug 2023 · 47m

What this episode covers

Sanjay Vijendran, lead for the SOLARIS initiative on space-based solar power at the European Space Agency, explains the technical and economic viability of beaming 24/7 solar energy from geosynchronous orbit to Earth. He details the four main components—launch, solar collectors, phased array antennas, and ground receivers—and argues that reusable rockets like SpaceX's Starship and mass-produced satellite hardware have lowered costs enough to make the concept economically plausible within 10-15 years. Vijendran highlights ongoing pilot projects by Caltech, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the Japanese Space Agency, while addressing safety concerns regarding radio frequency exposure and the critical need for increased R&D funding to bridge the gap between current demonstrations and commercial gigawatt-scale systems.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
European Space Agency, SpaceX, Caltech, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Japanese Space Agency, Virtue Solace, Air Force Research Laboratory
Products
Starship
Also
SOLARIS

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