13/03/2022
The Guardian: Will Hutton highlights the UK Space Energy Initiative’s plans for solar power stations in Space
In this piece from The Guardian by Will Hutton – President of the Academy of Social Sciences, co-chair of the Purposeful Company, Associate with LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance, and Non-Executive Director of the Satellite Applications Catapult – talks about the current position of the economy and what responses need to be taken. He explored what Space-Based Solar Power could do for energy prices.
“Thus the proper response to high energy prices and Russia’s foreign policy influence is to accelerate independence from fossil fuels led not by big government but necessary government. It is not to double down on fossil fuel reliance, issuing new licences to drill in the North Sea and relaxing rules on fracking. Energy policy requires strategies that work over a generation, not a response to today’s spot prices. Solar and wind power are now even more economically attractive, but so is electricity generated from power stations in space and microwaved back to Earth. Britain’s Space Energy Initiative plans a power station 36,000km high, but why not more? Lift Britain’s tax take to the middle of the IMF’s league table and we could have nil dependence on fossil fuels by 2035.”