Space Solar UK

Space Solar UK is a British company developing CASSIOPeiA (Constant Aperture, Solid-State, Integrated, Orbiting Phased Array), an innovative architecture for space-based solar power (SBSP) that could potentially deliver clean electricity to Earth 24 hours a day regardless of weather or season. Space-based solar overcomes the fundamental limitation of terrestrial renewables: a satellite in geostationary orbit (GEO) receives uninterrupted sunlight 99.5% of the year with no atmospheric filtering, collecting solar energy then transmitted to Earth via microwave radio waves to ground-based receiving antennas (rectennas) where it is converted to electricity. The CASSIOPeiA design's distinctive feature is its novel orbital geometry: unlike traditional flat-plate SBSP concepts that require complex rotation mechanisms, CASSIOPeiA maintains a constant aperture facing both the sun and Earth simultaneously through a helical orbital configuration, enabling solid-state (no moving parts) continuous microwave transmission at multi-gigawatt scale. The company secured a letter of intent with Reykjavik Energy (Iceland's main utility) for 30 MW by 2030, scaling to 15 GW by the mid-2040s. SBSP has received serious UK government analysis through BEIS-commissioned feasibility studies that found it technically viable given SpaceX Starship-class launch cost reductions, with the UK's 2023 Space Innovation and Growth Strategy endorsing SBSP development. Space Solar UK's 2 GW commercial system concept represents the scale at which SBSP becomes economically competitive with nuclear and offshore wind.