US EditionSpace Solar Panels Could Cut Europe’s Reliance on Land-Based Renewables by 80 Percent
King's College London research projects space solar power could cut Europe's land-based renewables use by 80%, reduce battery storage needs by over two-thirds, and lower energy costs by up to 15%.
- Published in Joule, researchers at King's College London modelled NASA-designed systems for 2050 and found space-based solar power could reduce Europe's reliance on land-based renewables by 80%.
- With net-zero targets for 2050, Europe's push to reach these goals drove the search for alternatives as terrestrial solar power is limited by daylight and weather, leading engineers to develop large battery storage.
- The study compared two NASA designs: the Innovative Heliostat Swarm captures sunlight almost continuously needing costs about 14 times terrestrial panels, while the Mature Planar Array gathers solar energy around 60% of the time at nine times terrestrial costs.
- Their models show system costs could fall by about 15%, with simulations indicating battery usage could drop by more than two-thirds, saving around 35.9 billion euros annually for Europe's power system.
- At present, costs remain far above break-even, with Wei He and colleagues warning that space-based solar power costs are 1–2 orders of magnitude higher, urging coordinated experiments, policy work, and public engagement before scaling up.
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15 Articles
Solar panels in space could cover 80 percent of Europe's renewable energy needs by 2050, a new study has found.
Space-based solar panels could make a big difference by 2050
A new cost-benefit analysis based on current NASA designs for space-based solar panels shows they could remove the need for up to 80% of ground-based solar and wind in Europe. The concept of space-based solar power was first proposed at the height of the space race in 1968 by Czech-American aerospace engineer Peter Glaser. Though published nearly 60 years ago, Glaser’s paper made the prescient observation: “Whether or not the human species will …
© Wei He Innovative Heliostat Swarms could cover up to 80% of EU electricity demand and replace fossil energy.
According to researchers from King’s College London, space solar panels could reduce European energy needs by 80% by 2050.
Space-based solar power could meet 80% of Europe's renewable energy needs by 2050, researchers have found. They used detailed computer models to show that a system based on NASA-designed space-based solar panels could meet at least 15% of Europe's energy needs and reduce battery consumption by more than two-thirds. The work, led by scientists at King's College London, is the first to examine the impact of space-based power generation on Europe. …
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