January 2005

"EARTH & SPACE-BASED POWER GENERATION SYSTEMS – A COMPARISON STUDY"

Final Report LBST consortium for ESA Advanced Concepts Team

By order of the ESA Advanced Concepts Team, LBST led a consortium of experts from the field of space technology and terrestrial PV technology. The objective of the study is to comparatively assess the economic viability, energy effort, risk and reliability issues of broad-scale terrestrial and space based solar power systems. Scenario power levels range from 0.5 GWe to 500 GWe. The geographical scope of the study is Europe. Time basis for this study is 2030.