Mother of all energy sources: European space agency wants to promote solar power from space

• The program, called Solaris, aims to promote opportunities for using solar power from space.
• The ESA wants to promote this to the member states, including Germany, in November.
• The idea: geostationary satellites collect electricity with the help of solar panels and beam it down to earth.
• This works 24 hours a day and all year round.

Sunlight is enough: Generating energy with the help of solar power is fascinating in itself and is currently being increasingly automated. Entire office buildings can supply themselves with electricity via innovative solar facades, and flexible panels in electric cars ensure a decent additional range. But ESA’s plans go far beyond that, sounding like science fiction close enough to touch.

The Solaris program aims to research the extent to which geostationary satellites can produce electricity at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers and beam it to earth. Because these “solar satellites” are not disturbed by the Earth’s atmosphere, solar power production is much more efficient and can be done around the clock and regardless of the weather, according to an accompanying statement.

In the attached video, ESA explains the vision that, according to its own statements, could soon become reality and that other nations have been working on for a long time. The know-how and the technology for the project already exist and have been tried and tested, both on earth and in space. But before this “ultimate form of energy production” can actually be put into practice, further research and funding is required.

The decision to move forward with the Solaris project will finally be made in 2025. This November, the ESA intends to advertise to its member states. The Paris-based ESA was founded in 1975 and has 22 members, including Germany, France, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Austria and Switzerland.

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