Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E)(NYSE: PCG) is seeking approval from regulators to enter into a power purchase agreement with Solaren Corp, a company that wants to beam energy back to earth from satellite-based solar panels.
Space-based solar is an idea that has been in development for years, but the announcement made on a PG&E weblog marks a significant step in making the theory a reality.
Energy produced by orbiting solar panels would be converted to radio-frequency energy for transmission to a receiving station on earth. There the energy would be converted to electricity and added to the power grid.
Numerous regulatory and cost hurdles remain, but space-based solar would have the advantage of constant exposure to sunlight, unrestricted by cloudy weather and nighttime cycles.
PG&E said it does not intend to provide any up-front payments to help fund Solaren’s operations. "We’ve been very careful not to bear risk in this," PG&E spokesman Jonathan Marshall told msnbc.com.
PG&E has agreed to buy 200 megawatts of power through a 15-year power purchase agreement.
Solaren is an eight-year-old company based in Manhattan Beach, California. The company projects commercial operations beginning in 2016.
Read extended coverage at the link below.
Loading...