From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Doug Brodie

The latest bonkers idea from Mad Miliband:

From the Telegraph:

Solar farms could be deployed in space to help Britain hit net zero targets, according to a new report published by the Energy Department.

Under ambitious clean power plans, orbiting solar satellites could be used to capture the sun’s energy before beaming it down to an antenna on Earth to be converted into electricity.

The proposal has been cited in a new government study on the latest space technologies which suggests that solar panels could be installed on satellites on Earth before being launched into space.

It is perhaps the most radical proposal yet as Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, strives to achieve net zero by 2050.

“Space-based solar power could provide Great Britain with constant, predictable, zero-carbon power at the GW [gigawatt] scale that displaces both intermittent renewables and fossil fuel generation,” the report said.

“A space-based power system involves one or multiple satellites equipped with lightweight solar panels capturing the sun’s energy in space.

“The satellite generates electricity, converts it into microwave radiation and beams it to a ground-based rectifying antenna (rectenna). The rectenna converts the microwave energy into electricity.”…

The report was commissioned in 2021 by Kwasi Kwarteng, then the Conservative business secretary, whose brief included leading on net zero strategies and space technology.

He commissioned the Frazer-Nash consultancy to investigate the idea, with the final report finally published this week by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

It suggests that although initial costs would be high, they would plummet as the technology matured, potentially falling to between £87 per megawatt hour (MWh) and £129 per MWh by 2040.

This compares with a predicted cost of £150 per MWh for new nuclear. The latest offshore wind contracts saw operators offered about £90 per MWh for fixed turbines and £216 per MWh for floating wind.

This suggests that space-based power station operators could be given contracts for difference, giving them a guaranteed minimum price for the power generated. This is the same subsidy scheme used to support renewables such as wind.

However, the report warns that the UK Government would have to help fund initial development, suggesting that the best approach would be to fund a smaller system that could be scaled up later once investors had gained confidence.

Full story here. 

In other words, they want to waste billions of pounds on a project that probably won’t even work, that will, if it does work, provide electricity at a much higher cost and be vulnerable to attack. All in the hope that, when the technology matures, it might cost the same as nuclear power!

Why not let the EU or China waste their money first, and then copy their technology if it does work?

As for “zero carbon”, how will they get all their satellites into space?

By wind power?

We should also remember that satellites don’t stay aloft forever. And when they drop out of orbit, we will need to spend more money sending the next lot up.

No doubt the consultants who wrote this report are looking forward to more taxpayer cash to do more evaluation studies!