Where is sunnier than
the Middle East and North Africa region? Not many places on Earth — but in
space, the sun shines eternally, and unhampered by clouds or dust. So it is
understandable that a desert kingdom would team up with a foggy island to
harness this energy source.
اضافة اعلان
Saudi Arabia’s NEOM
project, the futuristic new city in the country’s northwestern corner,
has invested in Space Solar, a British company.
The UK’s business secretary met the chairman of the Saudi Space Commission
earlier in January. Along with the UK, the US, Japan, and China have shown
serious interest in generating solar power in space.
The off-world concept is to put an enormous system of mirrors and solar panels into geosynchronous Earth orbit, where the sun is visible almost all the time
Ground-based solar
photovoltaic power has made tremendous strides in recent years, with the Middle
East becoming home to the cheapest and largest systems in the world. Along
with wind turbines, it has emerged as
the favored workhorse for the new, low-carbon energy economy that is essential
to avoiding disastrous climate change. But even in the best locations, solar’s
capacity factor — the ratio of annual output to the maximum instantaneous
generation — is only about 20 percent. Naysayers are fond of reminding us that
the sun does not always shine, as if it were a new discovery.
There are partial
solutions: using daytime solar to charge batteries or generate hydrogen for
storage, or connecting different time-zones and latitudes with high-voltage
cables thousands of kilometers long. One consortium plans such a link
between Morocco and the UK. But “green”
hydrogen is nascent and relatively expensive, and batteries have limited
capacity to see a country through a long, sunless winter. Not all countries
have readily-available land. Long-distance cables could be
surprisingly cost-effective, but present political and security
vulnerabilities.
A stellar energy
solution
So the off-world
concept is to put an enormous system of mirrors and solar panels into geosynchronous Earth orbit, where the sun is
visible almost all the time. The generated electricity is converted into
high-frequency radio waves, which are hardly absorbed by the atmosphere, and
beamed to a ground station which converts them back into electricity. The array
can be redirected easily, so it could serve several widely-spaced receivers,
switching from one to another as night falls or demand increases.
A British
government-funded report found that space-based solar power was technically feasible and
affordable. Its potential viability has rocketed
due to two major recent developments: the dramatic fall in the cost of solar
panels, to the point of being the cheapest terrestrial source of electrons, and
the declining cost of space launches facilitated by reusable systems such as
SpaceX.
When I wrote about
the topic in 2014, lifting material
into orbit cost about $10,000 per kilogram, and photovoltaic panels went for
about $0.70 per watt. Now, SpaceX offers launches at just over $1,000 per
kilogram, and PV panels are about $0.20 per watt.
Launching the project
By 2035, Space Solar
hopes to have a full-scale operational system of 2 gigawatts. For comparison,
this is the same size as the Al Dhafra plant under construction in Abu Dhabi,
set to be the world’s biggest, and would generate about as much as a big nuclear
reactor.
The government report
more cautiously suggests 2040 as the starting date, and under conservative
assumptions, it estimates an electricity cost of about 6 US cents per
kilowatt-hour. This is significantly lower than new nuclear plants, hydrogen,
or natural gas with carbon capture, the other main contenders for continuous,
low-carbon electricity.
It is not certain that space solar can be made commercially viable. But it appears rather easier than other futuristic energy options such as nuclear fusion.
A development program
to advance to the first operating system could cost some $20 billion and would
probably need substantial government support in the early stages.
The basic components
of the system are well-understood. The main technical challenge would seem to
be mastering autonomous robotic assembly and maintenance in space. The panels
would need to be as lightweight as possible, but also modular, easy to
assemble, robust to damage from micro-meteorites, and highly efficient. The
launch rockets should use zero-carbon fuels.
It is not certain
that space solar can be made commercially viable. But it appears rather easier
than other futuristic energy options such as nuclear fusion. And it also seems a
more practical candidate for the first large cosmic industry than another
popular idea, mining asteroids for rare metals.
Looking to the skies
We might question why
the Middle East — set to be a leader in deployment of terrestrial solar –
should look to the skies. But if other countries are going to launch, it would
be better to be on board. Locations with open land, closer to the equator, also
make superior receiving sites. Ground-based solar, with its lower costs, could
be a good complement to its orbital cousin.
The UAE has its own
active space program, sending an orbiter to Mars and a probe to the Moon which should touch
down in April. The research and development required over the next two decades
to make the system a reality will have many technological spin-offs. What was
science fiction just a few years ago may quite soon illuminate even the Earth’s
sunniest regions.
Robin M. Mills is CEO
of Qamar Energy, and author of The Myth of the Oil Crisis. Twitter: @robinenergy. Copyright: Syndication Bureau
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