New Frontiers in Solar Power Generation: A Comprehensive Review of Solar Power Satellite Schemes

The earth continuously receives around 173 quadrillion watts (173000 billion kW) of solar energy, which is close to 10,000 times more than the world’s power consumption as of 2020. Though solar energy directed towards earth seems promising, hurdles like the lack of space for building plants close to areas of usage, or transmission costs and losses from the large-scale energy generation units (like solar farms) make reaching the goal more difficult and time-consuming than estimated. With rapidly rising global energy demands, it is of prime importance to develop novel techniques to harness energy in more efficient ways. Thus, the question lies in how to harness solar energy without an added disturbance to densely populated regions, reducing transmission costs, and also overcoming the irregularity in power generated due to irregular weather patterns. This work is a comprehensive review of the available solar power satellite schemes as a solution for the projected energy crisis.

I. Introduction

It is estimated that energy demands will almost double between 2018 and 2050 [1]. Presently, the majority of the power generated comes from burning fossil fuels. However, this resource is not a permanent solution to meet energy demands. The world is continuously working towards new methods to extract power from various non-depletable sources, like solar energy, wind energy, and tidal energy. Sectors like transportation which used to operate without electrical power are shifting to an electrical alternative to be able to operate with greener resources.