Space-Based Solar Power: Part of a Balanced Energy Diet!
Posted by Coyote on July 29, 2008
Our good friend Geoffrey Styles of the GSW Strategy Group, LLC, gave a most thought provoking presentation at the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2008 Conference In Crystal City, Virgina, on 19 July 2008. It was a great conference! They even provided us with a brief synopsis of our space solar power panel.
Included here are the slides he used to describe a new way of thinking of national energy consumption. \”SSP In a Changing Energy Diet\” Instead of discussing the energy “mix” of sources, he rightly points out that like calories in a person’s diet, not all calories are equal.
He wants us to think in terms of our national energy “diet.” In my own terms, I think of petroleum as calories from a delicious fatty steak and solar-electric as calories from a healthy piece of fruit. (Boy, that steak sounds good right now! Note to self; never blog on an empty stomach!)
Take a look at his slides. Please consider the questions he poses at the end and please discuss your thoughts here. Does he change the way you think? Adjust it a little? Give you new analogies to describe our energy consumption?
Cheers!
Coyote
Space-Based Solar Power 
Dan Lantz said
I would comment from a step back and say that Space Solar Power(SSP) is only one aspect of In Space Resource Use(ISRU), and that it should be persued as a way to “open” Space if anywhere near competitive with other energy systems. This is the “Eureka!” epiphany mentioned on pg 30 of the Ad Astra issue. ISRU would be needed even if SSP were not.
Coyote said
Dan Lantz: You have hit on something that Major General Jim Armor, the former Director of the totally awesome NSSO also noted. Namely, that Space-Based Solar Power with worth pursuing as part of our energy policy, environmental policy, space policy, and as a set of goals within our education policies. It really transcends traditional policy boundaries. Being space advocates, we clearly see the potential for space-based solar power to open the highway to space wide and deep! But it also helps in those other areas as well. We have to make allies in energy, environmental, and educational circles.