杏吧原创

The UK government has thrown its backing behind an ambitious plan to beam energy down from solar panels in space.

Science minister George Freeman said he will support an initiative that hopes to construct a solar power array in orbit that could transmit low-carbon energy to the UK and other countries around the clock. That doesn鈥檛 mean the government will 鈥渨rite a cheque鈥� for the project, but it is 鈥渦p for supporting鈥� it, he told an audience at the UK parliament on 10 March.

The prospect of using robots to assemble a 2-gigawatt solar power station in space and sending the energy to Earth as high-frequency radio waves to be converted back to electricity using a kilometres-wide, net-like antenna faces a host of challenges. Yet a report on the economic and technological feasibility of the idea, commissioned by the UK Space Agency, found it was realistic. Space-based energy could be operating by 2039, it said.

Freeman didn鈥檛 explicitly spell out how the government will aid the project, called the , but New 杏吧原创 understands it is likely to include help with potential regulatory hurdles, such as accessing the radio frequencies needed to send the energy to Earth鈥檚 surface.

Speaking at the same event, a senior UK government adviser said achieving net-zero emissions was one of society鈥檚 biggest challenges and space-based solar power could be a 鈥渒ey element鈥� in reaching that goal. 鈥淲e know the costs are significant, but we recognise that also the benefits are there,鈥� said Paul Monks, chief scientific adviser to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Pursuing the technology would boost the UK鈥檚 space sector too, he added.

BEIS later confirmed to New 杏吧原创 that it is developing a small-scale innovation programme to support the technologies around space-based solar power, which is due to launch at the end of this month.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of , which works to improve urban environments, said at the event that she supported the Space Energy Initiative, which has the potential to quickly switch to beaming energy to different parts of the world, provided there is a collector to receive it. 鈥淎dvances in science have made it possible for us to make this giant leap forward. We want transformative change,鈥� said Sharif.

Martin Soltau of consultancy Frazer-Nash, part of the team behind the Space Energy Initiative, told New 杏吧原创 work is taking place to establish a company and secure funding to start making the idea a reality.

It isn鈥檛 clear yet who might finance the ambitious scheme, but representatives from oil giant Shell and , a planned 鈥渆co city鈥� in Saudi Arabia, were at the initiative鈥檚 launch. Will Whitehorn of , a London-listed investment trust, said he thought his fund would invest in a space energy initiative within the next two to three years. He put the cost of a scheme on a par with the UK鈥檚 HS2 rail line, which may cost up to 拢98 billion.

Martin Haigh of Shell, who considers future energy scenarios, told New 杏吧原创 he was looking to see whether space solar should be included in his models. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 interested to know is can this be a serious contender as a new energy source,鈥� he says.

China is among the other countries eyeing the potential of space-based solar power to meet its climate goals and growing energy demands, .

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