Solar Power from Space

Solar power collected in space and beamed to Earth could be an environmentally friendly solution to our planet's growing energy problems.

It's December 2000 and the governor of California flips a switch illuminating the state Christmas tree on the capital lawn. Twenty minutes later, he orders aides to pull the plug. Why? Statewide power shortages.

The United States energy secretary ordered a dozen out-of-state power companies to sell electricity to California to avert blackouts. But it's not just California.

In metropolitan areas across the country, residents are being asked to limit power consumption during peak periods of the day. Last November, in the midst of the closest US presidential election in history, Tom Brokaw referred to the electricity shortages as "The Real Power Struggle."

So what's going on here?

"The United States consumption of energy is almost flat," says Dr. Neville Marzwell, technical manager of the Advanced Concepts & Technology Innovations program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "But, we are decommissioning nuclear plants across the country and they are not being replaced." Twenty-three states have joined California in deregulation of the power industry, a step which is forcing companies to take a longer look at investing billions in construction of new power plants.

With the world's population projected to skyrocket to 10 billion people by the year 2050, supplying cheap, environmentally friendly electricity to meet basic needs will be a daunting challenge.

"We need new sources of electrical power," said John Mankins, Manager of Advanced Concepts Studies at NASA Headquarters Office of Space Flight, "and we have been studying a variety of space solar power concepts. Tremendous advances have been made in many relevant technologies in the last fifteen years."

NASA Imagine providing the Earth or a moon base with harnessed solar power, or ravelling in space without returning to Earth for fuel. That's the idea behind space-based solar power generators such as this SunTower.

NASA's involvement in space solar power, or SSP for short, began after the oil embargo of the mid-1970's when the space agency (working under the leadership of the US Department of Energy) began to study alternative energy sources that might result in less dependence on foreign oil.