NewSpace 2010: Space Solar Power Discussion

Space Solar Power Panel

Amaresh Kollipara (moderator) – Co-founder & Managing Partner, Earth2Orbit LLC
Joe Carroll – Tether Applications, Inc
Taylor Dinerman – Writer and weekly syndicated columnist
Dr. Feng Hsu – Senior Vice President, Space Energy
Thomas Olson – Exodus Consulting Group

NOTES BY JIM KERAVALA

— Electricity demand doubling
— China number 1 explorer of natural resources
— India and Africa are growth areas for energy consumption
— Bypass fossil conversion inefficiency
— Trillions of dollars of private capital sitting around not being invested at the moment
— New materials such as carbon nanotubes, bimorph structures, etc. are going to reduce launch costs and space structure costs
— niche markets
— Pacifica 44c/kw hour
— DOD over $1/kw hour
— Are these big enough niche markets?
— Denmark going green
— Space elevator power could be beamed down as well as beamed up
— Private financing will be there to some extent
— Demonstrator projects are interesting possibilities
— Maybe use a Bigelow module for demonstration
— Terrestrial-based beaming experiments on a much larger scale
— Next step: space-based demonstrator using a very large antenna and getting the antenna
— Getting the technology right will unlock a large amount of private investment
— Following that there will be new models and new competition such as the Soleron project
— Decentralized power availability might change global property values