Commercial space-based solar power station build agreement inked

Advanced manufacturing company Orbital Composites and space-based solar generation developer Virtus Solis Technologies plan to build the “world’s first commercial space-based solar power station”.

The agreement is embodied in a memorandum of understanding between the two companies, of which few details have been released at this stage, facilitated by spacetech investment company Generation Space, the US unit of the British space investment firm Seraphim Space.

For the venture Virtus Solis will design the core space and solar technologies, including the antenna arrays, power electronics and modular mega-structures.

Orbital will apply its expertise in robotic manufacturing to develop low cost and scalable manufacturing processes and provide manufacturing-as-a-service to Virtus Solis. This will include 3D printed phase array antennas, turnkey satellites and in-space service, assembly and manufacturing of the solar power station.

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“This partnership is a significant step towards providing clean, low cost energy to our planet and unlocking the potential of cislunar space,” commented John Bucknell, CEO of Virtus Solis.

“By combining our breakthrough technologies with Orbital Composites' expertise, we aim to revolutionise space-based solar power and accelerate the transition to a sustainable energy future.”

Virtus Solis’s concept for space-based solar power is based on arrays of tens of thousands of small satellites – each 1.65m satellite delivering 1kW of power to the Earth – on scales from 100MW up to multi-GW level, with orbits chosen to achieve greater than 90% availability.

Virtus Solis reports earlier in the year in March demonstrating wireless power transmission over a distance of over 100m – key for beaming solar energy from space to the ground with the potential subsequently demonstrated with Caltech’s MAPLE pilot in which beamed energy was detected at the university’s Pasadena campus.

Orbital Composites is pioneering robotic additive manufacturing for advanced electronic composites, with its robotic factories expected to be capable of mass-producing Virtus Solis’s satellites.

The company has been funded by the US Space Force to develop in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing and also has formed partnerships with key players in the space ecosystem including Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

Cole Neilsen, Orbital Composite’s founder and CTO, says the concept sounds like science fiction, until one day it will become the reality.

“In-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing’s foundational set of capabilities are required for space-based solar power and will allow humanity to build its largest ever structures in space.”

In addition to this venture, Virtus Solis is participating in a UK government funded, University of Bristol led project focussed on the development of open source scalable electromagnetics models to enable the design and operation of gigascale antenna solar power arrays in space.