Energy from Space

Nice news piece (in English) on France24.com about #EnergyfromSpace, #SBSP and #Orbitalmirrors. https://lnkd.in/ekCC7w6n

Support announced from the #energy side of the UK government for #SpacebasedSolarPower. Nice animation too! #climatecrisis #renewableenergy #spacesolarpower

HAPPY EARTH DAY 2024 from ESA SOLARIS! 🌍 This week, we are at the World Energy Council's World Energy Congress 2024 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. #EnergyfromSpace is on the agenda tomorrow 23rd April at 10:15am on the Main Stage under the theme "Refuelling the Future". This is an excellent opportunity to reach the global energy sector to spread awareness about #SpacebasedSolarPower and how it could help this tackle many of the challenges the #energy transition will be facing in the years ahead. We will be extensively networking and looking to establish key partnerships that can help raise the profile of this topic with those that need to be paying attention to it, especially public institutions working in national and regional energy policy. At the European Space Agency - ESA SOLARIS, we firmly believe the key to unlocking the next level of interest - and crucially, investment - in #SBSP R&D is to get the explicit support of and endorsement by major energy players of the value proposition of space solar power in the future energy mix. Just one significant and visible partnership between space & energy could be all that is needed to start the ball rolling and others will then come on-board. If you're at the Congress, drop Sanjay Vijendran a message on LinkedIn and we can talk! #future #innovation #technology

The 3rd and final day of the International Conference on Energy from Space kicked off with an inspirational address by UK Member of Parliament Mark Garnier OBE MP followed by excellent sessions on Operations, advanced solar cell technologies, technologies critical to wireless power transmission, Regulation & Public Communications. Some key takeways: 1) Operations: Alvaro Ortiz Serrano from GMV described how Mega-constellations of satellites are providing a lot of learning already now for how to deal with a large number different elements during ops, without exploding the ground control workforce and costs. AI is already being employed to reduce operations workload and will likely play a substantial role in construction and operation of Solar Power Satellites. 2) Regulation: A number of areas of regulation are likely needing updates and a big risk is it that all this takes a long time and becomes the driver of the schedule of implementation of SBSP systems. Current processes and timeframes for international decision making may not be adequate in this situation of a climate emergency. Demonstrator projects could play an important role to help accelerate updates and establishment of new regulations. Towards the end of the meeting, Stella Tkatchova, European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) Programme Manager for Space System revealed in her excellent keynote presentation, the outcome of the EIC's 2023 Pathfinder Challenge selection where more than 30MEuros has been allocated for R&D related to 'In-space solar energy harvesting'. This is a significant step by the EU in funding SBSP-related technology development. The final keynote speech was a video address by German Greens Party member and Member of the European Parliament, Niklas Nienaß who passionately expressed the need for an EU Space Law to ensure the sustainability of the use of space for all, as well as his strong support of #EnergyfromSpace as not only a potential accelerator towards our climate goals but also a driver for tremendous technological advances in areas benefitting both Earth and space activities. All good things must come to an end, and so did this extraordinary event after three very illuminating days, with ideas, knowledge and insights that will take quite some time to fully digest. The Chair of the RAeS Space Group, Howard R. Nye summed up the general sentiment from the gathering very well in his closing remarks when he said "We seem to all agree that this (SBSP) is something that we must do." 🚀 Thank you to all that attended for giving your time, energy and knowledge which has made this event arguably one of the most significant in the history of Space Solar Power! #SBSP #SpacebasedSolarPower #energy #future #innovation #technology UK Space Agency Royal Aeronautical Society Department for Energy Security and Net Zero European Space Agency - ESA #solarpower

Day 2 of the Conference on Energy from Space was another packed and intense day of presentations and discussions on all things related to #SpaceBasedSolarPower, going beyond the technical and covering topics including policy, collaboration, commercialisation and environment. This is what makes this event unique and so powerful as it takes a holistic view of this incredibly multidisciplinary field and tries to cover it all across one event, bringing together a hugely diverse range of voices to the conversation. UK Reserve astronaut Meganne Christian FRAeS opened the day with a beautiful and inspirational speech describing her incredible background and how she has come to recognise #SBSP as something that we need to try and make happen for our collective future. She ended with a passionate offer from now on to be an ambassador for SBSP, which came across as truly genuine and heartfelt and was certainly welcomed by the community. Thank you so much Meganne, we are very grateful for your support! 👏 Other highlights include: 1️⃣ The spotlight session on #powerbeaming technology, with excellent perspectives from leading commercial and academic players in this rapidly maturing field, on the multitude of applications of this technology outside of the field of SBSP. ⚡ EMROD, Airbus, Virtus Solis Technologies and Imperial College London showed how close we are to seeing power beaming being deployed commercially here on Earth (e.g. replacing power lines, charging-on-the-fly for mobile/aerial systems, electrifying remote places). Exciting to see how these terrestrial uses will drive forward the development of this key building block of SBSP and start to take a lot of the images of 'science fiction' out of the concept once we see it being employed usefully here on Earth (and potentially on the Moon) in the coming years. 2️⃣ A cosy, atmospheric and insightful 'Fireside chat' between Sanjay Vijendran and Space Energy Initiative (SEI) co-founders Sam Adlen and Martin Soltau on lessons from the establishment of the SEI - which brought industry, academia AND government together - and how they used it to build strong political support for SBSP within the UK in a very short time in recent years. Very interesting lessons shared which will be helpful for others regionally and globally thinking of using such a construction to do the same in their nations. 3️⃣ 'Enabling capabilities' presentations including results from the European Space Agency - ESA's recent concept studies on a European Heavy Lift Launch system that could put >10,000mt/year into LEO at low-cost as well as insights from Reaction Engines on #spaceplane concepts as viable alternatives to vertical rockets. Finally, sessions on Commercialisation, Robotic technologies, Environment & Sustainability rounded off a day of very rich and diverse content. #future #energy #technology #innovation Space Frontier Foundation European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) Space Studies Institute UK Space Agency

#SBSP today in a major French publication. #energyfromspace #orbitalmirrors #spacebasedsolarpower https://lnkd.in/e9kxMt9E

Fantasic first day of introductions, presentations, demonstrations and discussions on all things to do with #EnergyfromSpace #SpaceBasedSolarPower at the International Conference on Energy from Space in London! With a full house of more than 200 people from across the world, this is the first in-person event of its kind that has brought together actors from #energy, #space, government, industry and academia, all with a shared purpose of maturing the feasibility of space solar power for providing abundant, affordable, reliable clean energy to Earth as soon as possible. There has been quite a buzz here today with a palpable sense of anticipation and excitement in the air on the progress that has been made in the field as well as the rapidly increasing awareness of the promise of energy from space to contribute to decarbonisation and growing energy demand globally. Strong support for SBSP was demonstrated by the UK government through "professionally positive" speeches by Minister Amanda Solloway and UKSA CEO Paul Bate and an announcement of further funding for SBSP technology de-risking activities. Excellent as well to hear supportive sentiments for this from the President of Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI). The Energy Challenges session chaired by Paul Monks reminded us, in no uncertain terms, the sheer scale and system complexity of the Net Zero challenge and justified why it was crucial that the world continues to invest in new energy solutions such as SBSP to de-risk the transition and help solve the 'energy trilemma'. Another highlight was an on-stage demo of wireless power transmission by Virtus Solis Technologies who also talked about non-GEO alternatives to SBSP architectures that could provide better coverage and much reduced transportation costs. All in all, a very successful first of three days of information sharing and relationship building of a community that will shape the #future of energy from space! #technology #innovation Royal Aeronautical Society UK Space Agency Department for Energy Security and Net Zero European Space Agency - ESA #energy

About to kickoff the first day of the International Conference on #EnergyfromSpace! #future

In anticipation of the International Conference on #EnergyFromSpace kicking off in London this week, European Space Agency - ESA has published a new article on #Solaris and #SpaceBasedSolarPower. https://lnkd.in/erqRkxG7 #future #innovation #technology #energy

For French speakers, here's an article from this morning in France's Le Monde newspaper about the orbital mirror concept studied by ESA with Arthur D. Little and its partners. A constellation of orbital mirrors could be used to get #EnergyfromSpace down to Earth, helping substantially increase the output duration and yield of clean energy from terrestrial solar farms. https://lnkd.in/ejC_ZgBp #spacebasedsolarpower #sbsp #orbitalsolar #future #cleanenergy #solar #solarpv #innovation