Solaren Corp are planning to supply California with energy beamed down from an array of solar panels orbiting in space.
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company has agreed to buy 200 MW of energy from them. No firm plans have been seen to put the array in orbit, but the plan is to use normal satellite launches.
This deal has to be aproved by the government in California but it is due to be onstream by 2016. Investment for this will be about $5 billion. This is more than usual for alternative energy schemes. Gary Spirnak the founder of Solaren is confident.
If this works, it can be scaled up – the energy climate change cost has to be calculated with the rocket exhausts and components for each part of the array and receiving station. After that the energy is ‘free’.
