Could Solar Panels In Space Supply Earth With Clean Energy?

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• Could Solar Panels In Space Supply Earth With Clean Energy?

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• Amazon Sets A New Record For The Most Renewable Energy Purchased In A Single Year.

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Could Solar Panels In Space Supply Earth With Clean Energy?

For 100 years, people have dreamed of sending vast arrays of solar panels into space and beaming their energy down to Earth. Unlike intermittent renewable energy sources on the ground, these orbiting panels would always bask in bright sunlight and would potentially offer a continuous supply of power.

Now such schemes are beginning to look possible, thanks to cheaper hardware and the falling cost of space launches. Teams around the world are working on key parts of space-based solar power systems, and a prototype built by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena should begin experiments in orbit this month.

“There’s nothing outlandish in this that would require new physics,” says James Carpenter, who co-leads the Solaris initiative, a feasibility study undertaken by the European Space Agency (ESA) that could lead to full development of the technology from 2025. “Economically, it’s comparable, for example, with nuclear power,” says Carpenter, who is based at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Space-based solar power would be viable only if it were implemented on a massive scale. Scientists anticipate building kilometres-wide arrays of solar panels that would orbit Earth at a distance of around 36,000 kilometres. The energy that they harvest would be converted to microwaves and beamed down to surface-based receivers with even larger physical footprints.

China has announced plans to put a megawatt-scale demonstration unit in low Earth orbit in 2028, before deploying another system to a more distant geosynchronous orbit in 2030. Carpenter says that, with sufficient funding, the first multi-gigawatt solar power station could be operational by 2040. But despite the excitement, huge technical hurdles remain.

Meme Of The Week.

Amazon Sets A New Record For The Most Renewable Energy Purchased In A Single Year.

Amazon has announced that in 2022, it grew its renewable energy capacity by 8.3 gigawatts (GW) through 133 new projects in 11 countries. This brings Amazon’s total portfolio to more than 20 GW—that could generate the amount of energy to power 5.3 million U.S. homes—across 401 renewable energy projects in 22 countries.

The company’s renewable energy purchases continue to add new wind and solar projects on the grids that power Amazon’s operations, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, Amazon fulfillment centers, and physical stores around the world.

With these continued investments, Amazon set a new corporate record for the most renewable energy announced by a single company in one year. The company remains the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy—a position it’s held since 2020, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Amazon’s continued investment in renewable energy helps to accelerate growth in new regions through innovative deal structures, technologies, and cloud solutions.

These purchases also bring Amazon closer to powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of its original 2030 target. In 2022, the company announced new projects in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Spain, and the U.S., and broke ground on projects in Brazil, India, and Indonesia.

Quick & Clean Weekly Bites.

• Visiting green spaces can dramatically lower mental health drug use, research has found. Dropping into a park, community garden or other urban green space between three and four times a week can cut people’s chances of taking medication for anxiety or depression by a third. The positive impact - documented by researchers at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare - also extends to physical health. Visiting green spaces reduces the chances of a city resident having to take asthma or high blood pressure medication by a third and a quarter, respectively. Link.

• A draft European Union law will require companies to back up green claims with evidence. The proposal will clamp down on companies promoting their products as 'climate neutral' or 'containing recycled materials' if such labels are not substantiated. It aims to fight misleading environmental advertisements. "By fighting greenwashing, the proposal will ensure a level playing field for businesses when marketing their greenness," the draft document states. Link.

• Soaring demand for home solar power systems in Germany could boost revenues at Solarwatt by more than 50 percent this year to €500 million. By installing solar panels, batteries, and heat pumps, homeowners are seeking to cut their energy bills after huge price hikes last year when Russia cut fossil fuel exports to the West. "We are a life-long supplier to people who want to become self-reliant on renewable energy," says Solarwatt chief executive Detlef Neuhaus. The company should reach profitability this year. Link.