Solar power plants in space: SOLARIS is looking for the best concepts

Under no circumstances should it be seen as competition to renewable energies on Earth. Instead, the "SOLARIS" initiative (named after the novel by Stanislaw Lém) aims to contribute to ensuring a base load in the power grid through almost constant power generation from space-based satellites.

The project was launched back in November 2022 and is now taking on a more concrete form. Initial studies on the preferred technology and general feasibility have been completed. And the general result is: thanks to cheaper rocket launches, improved robot technology and the associated easier work in orbit, there is little standing in the way of implementation.

Two different concepts are currently being favored and pursued in parallel. On the one hand, the harvested solar energy is to be sent to receiving stations on earth in the form of radio waves.

Such energy packages, albeit in tiny units, are already being sent to earth from satellites in orbit. The basic concept is therefore familiar and works. In addition, radio waves can penetrate the atmosphere relatively undisturbed, even in cloudy skies. The problem remains as to how the whole thing can be implemented with much larger amounts of energy.

A second project relies on mirrors that can be aligned in large numbers to existing solar farms. This would make it possible to generate electricity at almost constant output even in the dark.

There would be almost nothing standing in the way of technical feasibility. The actual power generation takes place in a normal solar park. Moreover, if sunlight is not amplified but merely reflected, it is absolutely harmless - sunlight, that is.

Depending on the weather conditions, the light could be directed at one of several available systems above which the sky is clear, and the power generation would otherwise function as during the day. Ultimately, the solar cells would just be better utilized.

Exactly which concepts are to be implemented will become clear at the end of 2025. By then, the current phase of studies on the various technologies and their specific feasibility will be complete.