Solar power collected in space and beamed down to Earth sounds like science fiction (it did to the space sector too, until reusable rockets arrived). Martin Soltau, Co-CEO of Space Solar, is building it in the UK, and he is confident about the technology: NASA demonstrated power beaming in the 1970s. The part of his timeline he can't engineer is trust: how quickly regulators and the public accept energy that comes down from orbit.
🎧 Episode overview It starts with Martin's verdict on Europe's energy transition: the UK and Germany, he says, have "tested it to destruction", and households pay for it with expensive electricity and weaker security. His case for orbit is concrete: a panel in space produces eight to 13 times what it would in the sunniest place on Earth, robots assemble the satellites from coffee-table-sized modules, and the beam can be directed wherever power is needed. Eva pushes on the catch: if launch still runs through a handful of mostly American providers, does Europe swap one dependency for another? On trust, Martin points to fracking (a technology that worked and still lost the public) as his warning, and explains why he answers the safety question with wifi frequencies and intensities anyone can measure.
💡 Key themes
Why a grid built on free sunshine and free wind still delivers expensive electricity
Whether public trust can be earned before the first satellite flies, or only afterwards
What wireless power changes about energy security when undersea cables are already being targeted
Whether governments that fund this will accept standards letting a rival's satellite use their receiver
👤 About the guest Martin Soltau co-founded Space Solar in 2022 to build solar power satellites that deliver continuous electricity to receivers on the ground. He came from inside the space sector, where the idea sat on the science fiction pile until SpaceX made reusable launch commercial. Today his work is as much about convincing governments and regulators as about engineering.
⏱ Chapters
Tested to destruction (starts with: "I think it's the big challenging problem for humanity ...")
Why orbit beats the sunniest place on Earth (starts with: "So I suppose it starts with the fact that if you put a solar panel into space ...")
Launch, and who controls it (starts with: "Yeah, that's a very good question. I mean, if we look at wind and solar and batteries ...")
Standards between rivals (starts with: "Yes, I think there are many examples of where nations have collaborated ...")
Coffee-table modules and crawling robots (starts with: "Yes. Well, if you came to space solar at Harwell ...")
The trust question (starts with: "I think you use a really interesting word there, trust ...")
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