The true cost of "solar power at night" with Reflect Orbital

"A combination of increasing populations, the widespread development of heating and cooling, a reliance on modern electronics, and the introduction of new energy-intensive technologies (such as the blockchain, smart technology, and artificial intelligence) are among the factors driving our rising energy needs. Sure, we can always build more power plants, but what about the simple solution of increasing the efficiency and production of already-existing plants, particularly the ones that only see part-time usage: wind and solar."

"That's something that the US-based startup, Reflect Orbital, wants to change. The idea is to produce, as they put it, "sunlight on demand" - and light pollution by design - with plans to launch thousands (or possibly hundreds of thousands) of reflective satellites that would use mirrors to beam sunlight, collected in low-Earth orbit, onto the locations of already-existing solar power plants on Earth. By shining this light onto the power plants, even at night, they could cause these plants to generate extra power."

Reflect Orbital proposes launching thousands to hundreds of thousands of reflective satellites to beam collected sunlight from low Earth orbit onto existing solar power plants, enabling generation at night. The system aims to create "sunlight on demand" by using mirrors to concentrate orbital sunlight onto ground installations. Potential benefits include increased solar plant output without building new plants. Significant costs include risks to human safety and health, ecological disruption, interference with astronomical observations, and threats to the safety and sustainability of the low-Earth orbital environment. Daytime solar irradiance at the top of the atmosphere is about 1360 W/m², usable for photovoltaics or steam generation.

Read at Big Think