FIRST SATELLITE SOLAR ENERGY DEAL EVER

PG&E signs deal for solar power from satellites
Steve Johnson, April 13, 2009 (San Jose Mercury News)
and
PG&E Looks To Outer Space For Solar Power
Cassandra Sweet, April 13, 2009 (Dow Jones Newswires via Wall Street Journal)

SUMMARY
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), one of California’s biggest and most progressive utilities, has applied to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for permission to sign a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Solaren Corp. of Southern California for 200 megawatts of solar energy-generated electricity from solar collectors mounted on satellites in stationary, geosynchronous orbit.

The concept of using satellite-mounted solar collectors has long been hypothesized. NASA, the Department of Defense and other federal agencies have been doing studies and turning out papers for 4 decades. This would be the first such operational project in the world.

Solaren contends it could be generating 850 gigawatt-hours of solar energy by 2016 and it could double its capacity going forward.

The orbiting satellite would capture sunlight, transform it into radio waves and send the power safely to a receiving station near Fresno to be fed into PG&E’s electricity supply to the grid.

While skeptics have argued sending such a beam of power to earth would be dangerous to airplanes and birds who happened to fly through its path, PG&E and Solaren plan to transmit the electricity as radio waves, the same kind of radio waves that are presently transmitted without incident from communications satellites.

Much sun is lost before it gets to earthbound solar collectors. All sun gets to solar collectors in space which then send it all to antennae on the ground. (From Wikipedia - click to enlarge)

Solaren has seed funding from Gary Spirnak, its CEO, and other investors, and is in the process of arranging for billions to finance the engineering, design, testing and launching of a pilot system.

Undoubtedly driving PG&E’s pursuit of new sources of solar energy-generated electricity is California's Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) requiring the state’s utilities to obtain 20% of their power from New Energy sources by 2010, a standard widely-expected to soon be expanded to 33% by 2020. The Obama administration is also expected to push through a national RES requiring U.S. utilities to obtain 10% of their power from New Energy sources by 2012 and 25% by 2025.

NASA concept. (click to enlarge)

COMMENTARY
The conversion of solar energy to electricity is the way rooftop solar systems work. The conversion of electricity into radio waves is the standard way communications satellites work.

Despite the familiarity of the technology, the plan seems slightly like something from a James Bond movie but signing the agreement poses no real financial risk for PG&E because they only have to honor their end of the deal if the power is delivered.

The project cannot go forward without CPUC’s approval. Such approval would stamp the long-dreamed-of technological concept doable. CPUC recently prohibited PG&E from going forward with wave energy development when it decided the technology was not ready. CPUC is expected to pass judgment on satellite solar by the end of October 2009.

NASA concept. (click to enlarge)

PG&E did not disclose the projected cost of capturing and delivering solar energy from orbiting satellites but the filing with CPUC made it clear the cost would be an above-market rate expected to exceed 12.9 cents/kilowatt-hour.

The real attraction of obtaining solar energy-generated electricity in this way is that it theoretically would be delivered 24/7. There is no weather or day/night interruption of the sun in a space orbit. The only exception would be during 2 predictable 2-to-3 week periods at the spring and fall equinoxes when the sun’s rays would be blocked by the earth from reaching the satellites for a short time (up to an hour) around midnight.

Schematic. (click to enlarge)

Solaren CEO Spirnak worked as a spacecraft project engineer for the U.S. Air Force and as a director of advanced digital applications at Boeing Co.'s (BA) Satellite Systems. He recruited his engineering team from the Air Force and Boeing.

Solaren will use a patented ultra light-weight, larger-than-standard satellite. Spirnak plans to finish the project with an IPO once the concept has been proved. His long term plan is to launch large-scale solar power systems into space that can generate 1,500 megawatts of electricity.

A type of antenna. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- PG&E filing with CPUC: "Emerging technologies like space solar face considerable hurdles…PG&E believes that potential, significant benefits to its customers from a successful space solar installation outweigh the challenges associated with a new and unproven technology."
- Jonathan Marshall, spokesman, PG&E: "We believe this is the first of its kind…The potential rewards here are very great…If Solaren can succeed in its venture...there's tremendous potential for this kind of technology to be put to expanded use."
- Gary Spirnak, CEO, Solaren: "We're under no illusions as to the difficulty of the task…We understand how to work these things, but you have to put in the time, energy and engineering to make it work."