WASHINGTON — Overview Energy has won a contract from the U.S. Air Force to study beaming space solar power to military installations, reviving a concept studied two decades ago.
The startup, based in Ashburn, Virginia, announced May 6 it received a contract from the Secretary of the Air Force for Installation, Energy and Environment to study how space-based solar power could provide power to military installations, particularly in remote locations.
Overview is developing technology that would use solar panels in geosynchronous orbit to generate power that is beamed to Earth using infrared lasers to terrestrial solar farms. Those farms convert the energy into electrical power, allowing them to operate when sunlight is unavailable.
The study will examine how that technology could be used to support military installations. That would include those in remote locations, like Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska, and Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. The announcement did not disclose the value of the contract or the duration of the study.
“In many of these environments, energy is defined by how fuel can be delivered. Transforming that expands what the warfighter can do and how long they can operate,” said Marc Berte, chief executive of Overview Energy, in a statement.
The concept of using space-based solar power to support remote military bases is not new. A 2007 study by the Pentagon’s National Security Space Office identified delivering power to forward operating bases as a potential initial market for space solar power.
That assessment was based on the likely power levels of initial systems and a willingness by the Defense Department to pay costs of $1 or more per kilowatt-hour of delivered power to such facilities, avoiding the risks of transporting fuel to those locations. The conflict in Iraq that was ongoing at the time of the study showed that fuel convoys to forward operating bases were vulnerable to attack.
The report recommended further study of the military’s needs for space-based solar power and its willingness to pay for such power. However, the recommendations were not implemented, and the report also acknowledged that the business case for space-based solar power did not appear to close at the time, primarily because of high launch costs.
That is changing, thanks to decreases in launch costs. “That is the thing that has changed the biggest in just the past 10 years,” Berte said in a fireside chat at an April 30 SpaceNews event on orbital data centers. He cited launch costs that have gone from tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram to about $1,000 per kilogram now, with costs projected to further decrease to hundreds of dollars per kilogram with the introduction of vehicles like Starship.
Another factor, he said, is the improvement in lasers to transmit the energy from space to the ground, taking advantage of terrestrial solar farms. The company has tested that laser beaming technology from an aircraft and is working on a space-based demonstration in 2028.
That has attracted interest from companies as well as the military. Overview Energy announced an agreement with Meta April 27 in which Overview will supply up to one gigawatt of power for Meta’s data centers.
That is a sign, Berte said at the event, that space-based solar power is being taken seriously. “The Overton Window on space has shifted. Even just a few years ago, if you suggested space as an option for anything other than communications or maybe manufacturing of some pharmaceuticals or something like that, you’d be laughed out of the room,” he said.
“It wasn’t an infrastructure layer the way we’re now looking at it,” he continued. “Energy is the next level of that infrastructure layer.”
