- posted 13 years ago
PG&E makes deal for space solar power
Utility to buy orbit-generated electricity from Solaren in 2016, at no risk
California's biggest energy utility announced a deal Monday to purchase 200
megawatts of electricity from a startup company that plans to beam the power
down to Earth from outer space, beginning in 2016.
Solaren would generate the power using solar panels in Earth orbit and convert
it to radio-frequency transmissions that would be beamed down to a receiving
station in Fresno, PG&E said.
PG&E is pledging to buy the power at an agreed-upon rate, comparable to the rate
specified in other agreements for renewable-energy purchases, company spokesman
Jonathan Marshall said.
... Spirnak said Solaren's system would be "competitive both in terms of
performance and cost with other sources of baseload power generation."
He said the agreement called for 800 gigawatt-hours of electricity to be
provided during the first year of operation, and 1,700 gigawatt-hours for
subsequent years. The larger figure is roughly equal to the annual consumption
of 250,000 average homes.