A futuristic solar-power project backed by OC real estate mogul Donald Bren needs to move into the commercial sphere, according to the leader of the research team at Caltech.
The local multibillionaire has backed the idea of harnessing the sun’s power in space and beaming it to Earth to help solve the world’s energy issues. He has donated more than $100 million to fund the research.
A film about the Bren-financed research project had its West Coast premiere at Caltech on Oct. 27, with the three key researchers on hand for the showing.
Caltech Professors
Caltech professors Sergio Pellegrino, Harry Atwater and Ali Hajimiri have been leading the research.
After the screening of “Bright Harvest: Powering Earth From Space,” Atwater said the next step will require moving beyond research to commercialization.
“What happens next, it has to be commercial,” he said. “It can’t be done just at Caltech.”
The film was co-produced by philanthropist and Caltech trustee Brigitte Bren, wife of the real estate chieftain.
It tells the story of the three Caltech professors whose decade-long collaboration led to the world’s first successful demonstration of wireless power transmission from space to Earth in 2023.
Bren is chairman of Irvine Company, a lifetime member of the Caltech Board of Trustees and the second richest resident in Orange County, behind Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli, according to Business Journal estimates published in late July.
Idea from Popular Science Magazine
Bren, now 93 years old, first learned about space-based solar energy as a young boy after reading an article in Popular Science magazine.
“The hard work and dedication of the brilliant scientists at Caltech have advanced our dream of providing the world with abundant, reliable, and affordable power for the benefit of all humankind,” Bren says on the “Bright Harvest” movie website.
Bren is not alone.
There are now several companies around the world developing what is called space-based solar power technologies, an idea that has been around for a few decades.
Long Road Ahead
The path ahead for space-based solar power—called SBSP—is long and uncertain. U.S. space agency NASA said there is “growing global interest” in SBSP.
“Utilizing SBSP entails in-space collection of solar energy, transmission of that energy to one or more stations on Earth, conversion to electricity, and delivery to the grid or to batteries for storage,” according to NASA.
NASA cites proponents who say the system could deliver large amounts of electricity with fewer greenhouse gases.
Yet, skeptics say SBSP has no clear development path “while it is generally understood that SBSP is cost prohibitive and technically infeasible today,” according to NASA.
“Solar power beamed from space at commercial rates, lighting the globe, is still a future prospect. But this critical mission demonstrated that it should be an achievable future,” Caltech President Thomas Rosenbaum said early last year after the successful demonstration in 2023.
Space-based solar power will also be competing with other alternative energy forms including hydrogen, nuclear and wind.
