Just when you think solar might be getting traction here on earth, another article about the viability of space-based solar power comes out. Reuters posted it today, Orbital solar power plants touted for energy needs, and put forth the advantages of launching solar panels into space. The basics behind space-based solar power are simple – solar panels in space can collect energy from the sun 24/7. Then the electricity generated can be beamed back to earth via microwave or laser.

Jubbling’s take: With budget cuts, NASA and their counterparts need to stay relevant so pursuing ideas like space-based solar power generation may help justify their continued existence. But the cost of launching solar panels in space to get 12 more hours of daily sunlight is just crazy. The most important sentence in the Reuters article was:

The study did not estimate a potential overall price tag for completing the project.

We did some searching and found data from a 2009 article in E360, Solar Power from Space: Moving Beyond Science Fiction, that the Pentagon estimated it would cost $10 billion to put a 10-megawatt solar power plant in space by 2016. Compare that to the $1 billion spent to generate 250-megawatts of solar power in Nevada and Arizona.

Artemis Innovation Management Solutions of California recently received nearly $100,000 from NASA to study the feasibility of space-based solar. Jubbling would take only $2500 to tell them that we think the idea of space-based solar panels is totally batshit.