Could orbiting solar power stations be the way to a net zero future?

When Isaac Asimov created the idea in the 1940s it was simply science fiction, now harvesting solar energy from Earth’s orbit could be a possibility, albeit an expensive one, writes Steven Cutts

The International Space Station already makes use of solar power in space (NASA/Boeing)

The energy crisis is anything but a new phenomenon. Over time, the political motivation for new technology may change but for the scientific community the challenge remains the same. Research into alternative energy costs money and there’s nothing like an armed conflict to get the politicians on your side.

In the mid 1970s, they were trying to find the answer to the Yom Kippur war. By 1980, it was a reaction to the Islamic revolution in Iran. It was into this foray that the space industry decided to put its oar in the water and suggest that humans would be able to produce limitless energy in outer space and then beam it back down to Earth with no pollution and zero cost.

The Apollo project had just finished, and the rocket scientists were at a loose end. For this and other reasons, the American space agency Nasa got into orbiting solar power in a big way and an awful lot of optimistic reports were written about the possibility of saving the world by devices in geostationary orbit. Such an option would have neatly avoided such pesky problems as Opec (the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), the new government in Iran and organised labour.