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Highlights An end-to-end design of an orbiting solar reflector mission is presented. Five 250-m side length hexagon reflectors selected for 1-km equivalent disk. 13 large solar power farms serviced daily to deliver a total of 284 MWh energy. CMGs of 6.5-m radius needed to track/reorient reflectors during/between passes. Target price $70/MWh achieved for 5% discount rate and $232/kg launch cost.
Abstract Orbiting reflectors offer the possibility of illuminating large terrestrial solar power plants to enhance their output, particularly at dawn and dusk when their output is low but energy spot prices can be high. While the concept of orbiting solar reflectors has been considered in various forms in the past, there is now a timely overlap of rapidly growing global demand for clean energy services, falling launch costs through reusability and the emergence of in-orbit manufacturing technologies to enable the fabrication of large, ultra-lightweight space structures. This paper provides an end-to-end analysis of a possible minimum initial architecture to deliver such global clean energy services. The analysis will cover orbit selection, attitude control requirements, structural analysis and economical viability, followed by a discussion on regulatory issues, future improvements and further applications.
A reference architecture for orbiting solar reflectors to enhance terrestrial solar power plant output
Advances in Space Research ; 72 , 4 ; 1304-1348
2023-05-19
45 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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