Iceland is shifting to space energy: scientists revealed their plans.

Iceland may become the first country in the world to transition to space energy. At least the first megawatts could arrive on the island nation as early as 2030.

This is stated in a press release from the British startup Space Solar, which announced the signing of an agreement with Iceland's Reykjavik Energy. The company plans to deploy a 30 MW demonstrator within the next five years.

Furthermore, the company notes that there are also plans to scale the first demonstrator into a network of stations, each capable of delivering "gigawatts" of electricity to Earth. All of this is intended to be completed by 2036.

"With this commercial venture, Space Solar is revolutionizing the field of renewable energy. Unlike traditional solar power plants that depend on weather conditions and daylight, Space Solar technology offers continuous, controllable power around the clock," the company’s report states.

The concept of transmitting solar energy from space to Earth has been discussed for a long time, but it still faces a number of unresolved issues. However, this does not deter bright minds who believe that access to this unlimited energy could help eliminate dependence on fossil fuels forever.

In this context, a report from NASA is particularly intriguing, as it examines the possibilities of deploying space power stations through two projects — Innovative Heliostat Swarm (RD1) and Mature Planar Array (RD2). Both projects consist of solar panel arrays covering 11.5 km² and weighing 5,900 tons for RD1, and 19 km² and 10,000 tons for RD2.

The colossal weight of the power stations and the thousands of launches required to place them in orbit complicate the task, but this is not the only issue. Preliminary estimates suggest that the systems could deliver about 13% of the original energy to Earth and would require receiving antennas several kilometers in diameter. Even then, it would still be more expensive than energy from terrestrial sources.

The fact that RD1 would cost $1.3 trillion, and RD2 as much as $2.3 trillion, can be easily overlooked.

In light of this, the Space Solar project appears very ambitious; however, it can be expected that as technologies develop, the costs of their implementation will decrease. What the outcome will be, we should be able to see in just five years.

As previously reported, engineers from the University of California successfully transmitted energy from space to Earth for the first time in June 2023. Although the results were preliminary, this has rekindled interest in deploying power stations in space.