Agencies Look to Space for Solar Energy

MUMBAI — India’s Space Research Organization and America’s National Space Society announced the launch earlier this month of the Kalam-NSS Initiative to explore the possibility of harvesting solar energy through space satellites for use on Earth. The initiative, spearheaded by former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, was announced two days before President Obama’s official visit to India.

 

The idea consists of launching a satellite outfitted with solar panels into space to collect and convert the sun’s energy into a microwave beam that would be directed back down to Earth. A receiving antenna on the ground would then convert the beam into electricity for mundane human consumption.

 

The Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses, an Indian Defense Ministry think tank, first proposed the idea for a multilateral initiative on solar energy beaming and US Air Force lieutenant colonel Peter Garretson has been busy petitioning the US and Indian governments to undertake joint research and development and produce a commercially viable system by 2025. The technology for harvesting solar energy from space is believed to be 15 years off.

 

Proponents of the initiative project that it will create thousands of jobs in both countries, with the US contributing the technology and the majority of the hardware and India contributing low-cost manufacturing, in addition to producing enough clean energy to electrify India’s rural zones, further catalyzing its burgeoning economy.

 

NASA attempted to send a solar energy-beaming experiment to the International Space Station as part of its own research into space solar energy harvesting but cancelled the project two years ago before it could place it on board and the US military has conducted its own research in the field.