A Space Solar Power Industry for $2 Billion or Your Money Back

Abstract

A system of prizes to develop space solar power (SSP) is proposed. If successful, a two bill ion dollar investment could kick-start a vigorous SSP industry, which in turn could provide humanity with essentially unlimited quantities of clean electrical energy. If unsuccessful, the money is returned to its source. The prize is structured to subsidize the construction of nine SSP satell ites by at least three different entrants using different designs. The prize is aimed at developing small SSP systems delivering a few tens of megawatts to util ities on the ground. Under some reasonable assumptions, the prize money is sufficient to make one or perhaps two of the satell ites profitable and provide a significant subsidy to the other seven. Once small SSP systems have been successfully developed, producing large systems that can make a real difference to global energy production will be much easier. While $2 bill ion is a great deal of money, should this effort be successful, it is reasonable to hope that Earth’s energy and greenhouse gas problems could be solved.