ESA is exploring space to find ways to solve our planet’s energy problems in a greener way.
Engineers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are working on groundbreaking solutions to help achieve carbon neutrality on the continent by the 2030s. This will require a massive amount of alternative energy sources, so the researchers are looking to take advantage of the fact that space has continuous 24-hour sunlight and much higher intensity, which could be exploited by deploying solar panels.
According to ESA, the Solaris program is much less science fiction than one might think, as the technologies to harvest solar energy from space farms already exist and are being tested both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere. It is envisaged that the solar panels would be launched into space by reusable launchers (such as the Starship currently being tested by SpaceX), where they would be assembled by robots. The energy collected above would then be beamed back to ground receiving stations in the form of microwave or laser beams, which would be converted by these stations into electricity that could be delivered to the ‘regular’ electricity grid. Solaris is still in the preparatory and experimental stages and ESA expects the program to be launched in 2025.
Source: Dezeen
Cover photo: ESA
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