It may sound futuristic, but international researchers say space-based solar panels could allow us to harvest energy from the sun almost every moment of the day.
The first of the two projects, named the Innovative Heliostat Swarm, is in early development but is the most likely to be able to continuously capture solar energy. The second, named the Mature Planar Array, is much closer to being ready, but will only capture solar energy around 60% of the time; still a big step-up from solar panels based on Earth.
Overall, the model estimated that the heliostat design would reduce total system costs by 7%–15%, offset up to 80% of wind and solar, and reduce battery usage by over 70%. The authors say the current designs are not yet cost-effective, but hope the two systems can be honed to help with our future net-zero needs.
The researchers note that many technological breakthroughs are needed before space-based solar power can be implemented. In particular, large-scale testing of wireless transmission is essential, and advancements are needed to enable the devices to be robotically assembled while in orbit.