The Department of Defense has signed a contract with solar energy company Overview Energy to develop a homing beacon system designed to enable space-based solar power generation. The technology would involve solar panels positioned in orbit that collect sunlight continuously and transmit energy back to Earth through either laser or microwave beams.
Space-based solar installations would provide several advantages over conventional terrestrial solar farms. Since satellites in orbit would maintain constant exposure to the sun regardless of Earth’s rotation, they could generate electricity continuously throughout the day and night. This addresses a significant inefficiency in the clean energy sector, where misalignment between peak production times and peak demand times frequently results in wasted power generation and occasional negative energy pricing. Additionally, orbital solar arrays would eliminate the extensive land use requirements associated with ground-based solar farms, which according to a 2022 McKinsey & Company report require roughly ten times more space per unit of power than coal or natural gas facilities when accounting for fuel production and transport land needs.
The dispatchable nature of space-based solar power represents another key advantage. Satellites positioned in geosynchronous orbit could observe large geographic regions and direct power transmission to specific locations as needed, making the technology particularly attractive for military applications. The Pentagon plans to demonstrate the system in 2028, with satellite constellation deployment beginning in 2030. Overview Energy co-CEO Darko Filipi emphasized the importance of the space-to-ground connection for delivering power to precise locations, particularly for remote military installations.
Overview Energy has secured additional backing beyond the Pentagon contract, having agreed earlier this year to provide up to 1 gigawatt of space-based solar capacity to Meta, equivalent to a nuclear reactor’s output. Despite this backing, the complete space-to-ground system remains unproven in operational conditions. While company leadership expresses confidence in the technology’s commercial viability, skeptics including Stanford physicist Amory Lovins question the economic feasibility compared to established alternatives such as nuclear and geothermal power generation, which offer proven, cost-effective, and continuous energy production.
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