High oil prices, energy security fears and the potentially devastating effects of climate change have prompted the U.S. government to again explore the idea of placing millions of solar panels in orbit to beam immense amounts of clean power back to Earth. Seriously.

An agency called the National Security Space Office, which reports to the U.S. Department of Defence, released a feasibility study last week recommending that "space-based solar power," an idea first proposed in the U.S. some 40 years ago, be pursued in the name of national security.

The sun, after all, shines more strongly and for 24 hours a day in space, outside the filters of Earth's clouds and its relatively dirty atmosphere. There are also few real-estate problems up there, fewer people to complain and the potential of having a fuelling post for Richard Branson and other private space travellers.

According to the study, the energy collected would be electromagnetically beamed back to Earth and connected to the electrical grid, or used in the manufacture of synthetic fuels. It even suggests that weaker beams could be directed at individual households.

Seriously.

"A single kilometre-wide band of geosynchronous Earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contained within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today," the study states. "There is enormous potential for energy security, economic development, improved environmental stewardship, advancement of general space faring, and overall national security for those nations who construct and possess (the) capability."

It also says that Canada, among others, has expressed interest in such a project.

Again, the discussion has come up before. NASA and the U.S. Department of Defence have together spent about $80 million (U.S.) over the last three decades studying the idea. Seems like decent money, until you see that the U.S. government has spent about $21 billion over 50 years on that elusive energy utopia called nuclear fusion.

Perhaps it is time to give space-based solar power another look, given that such a system might already exist today had it received the money dumped into fusion. Oil has surged past $80 a barrel and there's a desperate need for low- or zero-carbon energy sources. Lob a few bombs at Iran and the situation gets worse, not better.

On the positive side, technology has advanced significantly over the past four years.

"While significant technical challenges remain, space-based solar power is more technically executable than ever before and current technological vectors promise to further improve its viability," according to the study. "A government-led proof-of-concept demonstration could serve to catalyze commercial sector development."

The recommendation is that a co-ordinated national program be created with "high-level leadership" and financial resources "at least" on level with nuclear fusion research or construction of an international space station. It's proposing a 10-megawatt pilot plant that would beam a continuous flow of solar electricity back to Earth.

Not to say the barriers, mostly economic, aren't huge. It costs dearly to rocket the materials into space that would be required to build the solar panels and associated equipment. Would the fuel and related greenhouse gas emissions resulting from such frequent launches undermine the "clean" logic of space-based solar power?

If one considers that the Internet started this way, as did the Global Positioning System, it's not a stretch to see orbital solar power plants becoming a serious commercial venture.

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Tyler Hamilton's Clean Break appears Mondays. You may email him at thamilt@thestar.ca