☀ The sunny potential of space-based solar power

5 Quick Questions for … for policy analyst Will Rinehart on AI regulation

Quote of the Issue

“This I believe: America again can enjoy the material and societal benefits of fast technological progress and rapid, innovation-driven growth. For that to happen, however, America must again become what I call an Up Wing country.” - James Pethokoukis, The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised

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The Essay

☀ The sunny potential of space-based solar power

In my Wednesday essay, “Space, the final economic frontier (and maybe a cure for 'secular stagnation'),” I did a deep dive into a marvelous new analysis by Harvard business professor Matt Weinzierl on how expanded economic activity in space could, theoretically, address what economists call “secular stagnation,” defined by Weinzierl as “a state of self-fulfilling, persistently sluggish economic growth that has increasingly threatened high-income countries.” And there are brief mentions in his analysis of space-based solar power, or SBSP, as a technology that could allow us to more fully access the clean energy output of the nearest star, as well as create massive demand for business investment.

As it turns out, I give SBSP a bit of a shout-out in my new book, The Conservative Futurist. It’s not a new idea. Isaac Asimov's 1941 short story "Reason” explores the concept of a space station supplying solar energy to Earth via microwave beams. As is his specialty, Asimov combines scientific fact with fiction, presenting a plausible vision of harnessing the vast solar energy that continuously strikes our planet. And there is a lot of fact in the notion of SBSP. The US Department of Energy envisions deploying self-assembling satellites with reflectors and microwave/laser transmitters in low-Earth orbit. These structures would direct solar energy to solar panels, which would convert it into microwaves beamed down to Earth-based collectors. Unlike the costly mega-project versions envisioned in the 1970s, the cost of satellite placement in orbit has decreased by more than 90 percent — thanks SpaceX! —making SBSP more economically feasible.