The goals of decarbonisation are very ambitious and now more and more around the corner. The geopolitical situation is what it is. And so Europe seems to have more and more desperately need for some ace on the sleeve to obtain decarbonisation and energy independence scheduled for 2050. A possible solution could come from space: with a system of orbiting solar panels we could in fact reduce 80 percent the need for systems from renewable sources on European land, while reducing production costs, storage and distribution of energy. These, at least, the estimates spread by a group of scientists from King’s College London, in a research published in the magazine Joule.
The study evaluated the potential impact on the European Energy Network of the construction and fully regime of a system of generation of spatial solar energy recently proposed by NASA, and known for now as a Representative Design One (RD1). The project, whose feasibility is not hypothesized by NASA before 2050, is the least futuristic of the two taken into consideration by the American space agency. And it is based on a constellation of heliostati, orbital mirrors that trace the position of the sun and reflect its light on a central collector, where it is converted first into electricity and then in the microwave, shoot in turn towards a receiver on the ground, and then tried by a series of converters that retransforms them in electricity, which is then placed on the electricity grid.
Among the advantages it offers, there is first of all the fact that in this way you are not at the mercy of the night-day cycle, the seasons and the bizes for the weather, and energy can be produced constantly for 99.7 percent of the year. And then, of course, to move the bulky solar panels in space, leaving only the energy reception station on the ground, which would not measure more than a few tens of kilometers to provide for the entire needs of the continent
This design was analyzed by British researchers with a model that simulated the distracting of energy in 33 European nations, based on the needs of each country. The calculations show that, once in full speed (and therefore not before 2050), the spatial solar would allow to replace the 80 percent of the renewable energy production plants necessary to reach the European net-zero, while reducing the costs of the entire network, for a saving of over 35 million euros per year.
In their analysis, the authors admit that they have not taken into account some specific challenges of the space environment, such as the congestion of the orbit linked to the continuous expansion of the constellations of satellites for telecommunications, or technical problems relating to the transmission of microwaves to the ground. And at the same time, it must be taken into account that at the moment it is still all on paper, and it will therefore be necessary to verify its feasibility and real performance. However, agencies and countries at work are different to transform spatial solar in reality: among these Esa, Nasa, China, and the Japanese space agency Jaxa.
It therefore seems only a matter of time, before seeing the first orbiting solar panels in action. And at that point, Europe must not be found unprepared. On the contrary: if we could guide the race for space renewables, we would finally have a more than concrete opportunity to achieve the environmental objectives of the European Green Deal, avoiding the risk of having to cover the continent of sunscreen and oeolic parks.
“For the first time, we have shown what positive impact to have these technology for Europe,” underlines Wei He, the first author of the study and researcher of the King’s College engineering Department. “The feasibility of these technologies is still in the revision phase, but our research highlights the enormous potential that they would have in the economic field in the environmental field, if you are very able to adopt”.