The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a power project that could see solar energy beamed to Earth from space, in an effort to meet the state’s aggressive renewable energy goals.
Under the agreement, California’s utility company Pacific Gas & Electric will buy 1,700GWh of electricity a year for 15 years from Solaren for its space-based solar arrays, the first of its kind in the world, with a generating capacity of 200MW.
Expected to start operation in June 2016, the space-based solar project will generate renewable energy round the clock, something that is not achievable by land-based solar or wind power.
To generate electricity, which will be transmitted as microwaves to a ground receiver station in Fresno County, California, Solaren will use satellites equipped with solar photovoltaic panels and mirrors.
Solaren engineers have designed a lightweight system around a Mylar mirror, 1km in diameter to concentrate light onto the solar panels and squeeze more electricity from them.
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