WASHINGTON - The U.S. Air Force is giving space-based solar power another look, two decades after deciding that beaming energy from orbit was a neat idea that probably wasn't worth the trouble. Overview Energy, a startup from Ashburn, Virginia, has won a contract from the Secretary of the Air Force for Installation, Energy and Environment to study how space-based solar power could juice up military installations, especially those in places where the nearest power plant is on another continent.
Overview's plan involves parking solar panels in geostationary orbit, collecting sunlight, and then shooting it down to Earth using infrared lasers aimed at terrestrial solar farms. Those farms then convert the laser light into electrical power, allowing them to keep running even when the sun isn't cooperating. The study will focus on remote outposts like Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska, and Andersen Air Force Base in Guam - places where getting a fuel delivery is less "fill 'er up" and more "please don't let the convoy get ambushed."
The contract amount and study duration remain classified, or at least undisclosed. "In many of these environments, energy is defined by how fuel can be delivered," said Marc Berte, Overview's CEO, in a statement that sounds like it came straight out of a PowerPoint presentation. "Transforming that expands what the warfighter can do and how long they can operate."
The concept is not new - a 2007 Pentagon study identified forward operating bases as a potential first market for space solar power, back when the Iraq War was making fuel convoys a very popular target. That study noted the military might be willing to pay $1 or more per kilowatt-hour to avoid sending tanker trucks through hostile territory. But the business case never quite closed, mostly because launching stuff into space cost roughly the same as a small country's GDP.
Times have changed. Launch costs have dropped from tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram to about $1,000 per kilogram now, with Starship promising to push that down to hundreds. Lasers have also gotten better, which helps when you're trying to hit a solar farm from space. Overview has tested its laser beaming from an aircraft and plans a space-based demo in 2028.
And it's not just the military that's interested. Overview announced a deal with Meta on April 27 to supply up to one gigawatt of power for data centers. "The Overton Window on space has shifted," Berte said. "Even just a few years ago, if you suggested space as an option for anything other than communications or maybe manufacturing of some pharmaceuticals or something like that, you'd be laughed out of the room." Now, apparently, people are only chuckling politely.