ANOTHER LOOK AT SPACE BASED SOLAR

A giant leap toward space-based solar power; Pacific Gas & Electric has signed a contract to buy power from an ambitious start-up that plans to launch solar power collectors into orbit to back energy as radio waves. Pie in the sky?
Marc Lifsher, may 17, 2009 (LA Times)

SUMMARY
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E), among the most aggressive utilities in pursuing New Energy development, is the first to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the delivery of solar energy from space.

PG&E has agreed to buy solar energy-generated electricity from Solaren Corp.’s planned satellite array of solar panels orbiting 23,000 miles above the earth.

Game-changer? Or pie-in-the-sky? Either way, PG&E only has to pay for the power that is delivered by Solaren so it costs PG&E’s customers nothing for the utility to give the technology this opening.

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Solaren is keeping details undisclosed and has asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the regulators who must approve the PG&E PPA, to do the same. In round numbers, the cost of the first space-based solar system will be $2 billion for 200 megawatts, estimated to be enough power for 150,000 homes. Solaren says it will have the system in operation by 2016.

Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security, a 2007 study by the National Security Space Office (NSSO), concluded the project is feasible.

Skepticism, nevertheless, is the main response to the Solaren plans, doubt that the project can get off the ground and doubt that it can do so cost-effectively.

Critics call PG&E’s involvement “grandstanding” and insist there are more mature and accessible New Energy sources (like wind, rooftop solar and geothermal), there are more accessible emerging technologies (like the hydrokinetic – wave, tidal and current – energies, and there is the proven-for-decades but barely developed potential of solar power plants here on earth.

At least one energy consultant, however, considers the Solaren project "very serious" as a "trial" of the concept.

It is a 4-decades-old scientific hypothesis that needs a proper trial to find out if it is a solution or science fiction.

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COMMENTARY
2 points made vivid by this story: (1) Utilities will do almost anything even remotely feasible to meet California’s strong Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). (2) Utilities would really like to find big sources of New Energy, the kind of power supplies that will keep them operating under their current business model instead of having to transition to a business model incorporating millions of small sources of distributed generation.

Many populists see solar energy as the people’s power and say the real game-changer is not the commercialization of outer space by Big Energy but a shift of big utilities toward empowerment of the community through a commitment to full-scale development of rooftop solar systems on the top of every home and business any and everywhere.

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Scientists like Cal Tech’s Nate Lewis have done calculations that show there just aren’t enough south-facing, unshaded rooftops available in the world, at the current cost and productivity of solar panels, to meet a growing and energy-hungry population's needs.

Meanwhile, PG&E must keep the lights on. And California’s RES requires it to do so with 20% New Energy sources by 2010 and 33% New Energy sources by 2020.

The NSSO feasibility study and the PG&E PPA should make Solaren’s pursuit of venture capital easier but the real test will be whether the CPUC gives PG&E the go-ahead. The decision is due by October 29.

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Solaren says space-based solar is really pretty simple, given the fully-familiar status of satellite communications.

The proposed 200-megawatt array can be put in place by 4-to-5 rocket launches. The satellites’ solar panels will receive the sun’s 24-7 light and transform it into radio waves that will be sent to a rectenna, a receiving station in open country near Fresno. Diffused radio waves for TV and phones presently travel between earth and earth-orbiting satellites constantly with no harm to birds or airplanes. The rectenna will convert the radio waves to an electric current and put it into the local transmission system.

Only this project’s proposed scale remains to be proven. NASA’s JPL beamed 1/3 of 1 megawatt a mile some years ago and last year John Mankins, a former JPL scientist, sent 20 watts, a very small amount of solar energy-generated power, 92 miles between 2 Hawaiian islands.

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QUOTES
- Gary Spirnak, CEO, Solaren: "If our numbers are anywhere near where we think they will be, we will be able to provide power at a cost that's comparable with anything on Earth, that is much cleaner and all from space…"
- From the NSSO feasibility study: "There is enormous potential for energy security, economic development, improved environmental stewardship, advancement of general space faring and overall national security for those nations who construct and possess a space-based solar power capability."
- V. John White, director, Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology: "There are a lot of speculative plays…We have a lot of PowerPoints floating around that I don't think will turn into power plants."

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- Jonathan Marshal, spokesman, PG&E: "The challenge…putting enough hardware up in space and doing it economically…There's no risk to our customers. They'll pay only for the power that's delivered…We're not investing in the project or paying advance fees."

- Mark Toney, executive director, The Utility Reform Network: "We think the chance of this company ever getting this solar farm -- literally and figuratively -- off the ground is quite remote…"
- Frederick H. Pickel, energy consultant/engineering economist: "If this works, it changes the whole game…If they manage to reduce the cost sufficiently for space-based solar generation, the electric game changes, the natural gas game changes and, perhaps, even the oil game changes."