Slashing CO2Space-based power stations.
Big Picture
Solar power is the workhorse of decarbonization. By 2050, as much as a quarter of global energy could come from the sun, even as power demand jumps by 50%. Yet, powering the world with sunshine has two key drawbacks: solar takes up a lot of land and requires storage to provide power after dark. The simplest way to avoid the costs and constraints of land and storage is to boost the capacity of existing solar farms.
How it Works
Overview unlocks truly baseload solar power. Their satellites convert the 24/7 sunshine in outer space into invisible, safe light beamed down to terrestrial solar farms. Providing photons day or night triples the capacity factor of solar farms to 80-95%, all at a lower cost than solar plus storage. The invisible beam is as safe as light, never delivering a higher intensity than ambient sunshine.
Unfair Advantage
Beaming down 24/7 photons at solar farms on Earth increases their peak and total output by 2x and <10x. This enhances asset utilization, slashes land and storage needs, and expands access to clean and affordable, baseload power even in the darkest corners of the world. The satellites can hit multiple evening demand peaks per orbit, providing cheap, clean power when it’s typically most needed and most expensive.
95
Percent capacity factor
solar farms
MARC BERTE CO-FOUNDER & CEO
Marc worked on energy, lasers, and space with DARPA, NASA, MIT and Raytheon. He has degrees in nuclear and aerospace engineering from MIT.
ANDREW CANTINO CO-FOUNDER
Andrew ran the climate program at the Astera Institute, and was Chief Architect at Mavenlink. He has a Masters in AI from Georgia Tech.
Space Solar Power: An Extraterrestrial Energy Resource for the U.S.
Innovation Frontier Project
Space-Based Solar Power
Department of Energy
Here’s how solar energy from space could get us to net zero
World Economic Forum