The Hindu Business Line : US co initiates talks to tap solar energy from space

Hyderabad, Sept. 12 Space Island Group (SIG), which has big plans to tap solar energy from space, has initiated talks with India to join in a major multi-million dollar initiative.

The US-based company, floated by former scientists of NASA, astronauts, and aerospace professionals, has held discussions with a large Indian corporate house with concern for climate change about the project.

Industrial House bullish

The SIG’s Director, India Operations, Mr Pranav R. Mehta, said a delegation from the company met the industrial house, which expressed the view that there was an opportunity in exploiting solar energy from space.

In addition, the SIG delegation also met the Union Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal; the Power Minister, Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde, and key officials of the Ministries of Power, Renewable Energy, Science and Technology end of August.

While preferring not to disclose the name of the industrial house, Mr Mehta told Business Line over telephone from Ahmedabad, that the Planning Commission and the Indian Space Research Organisation have also shown interest on the initiative during the meetings.

Space Island Group has proposed a Indo-US joint initiative in energy security with the first step of building a technology demonstrator for solar energy from space.

A team led by Dr John C. Mankins, former Director, space solar mission with NASA, and consultant with SIG, will be participating in the upcoming 58th International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad during September 24-28.

SIG’s plan

The plan of SIG is to place satellites in earth’s orbit with huge solar cells that are expected to convert sunlight into energy and transmit it down to simple antennas anywhere on earth. The antennas will convert the beams back into electricity and supply it to existing power grids at an extremely low cost. The round-the-clock system is billed to be low cost and would overcome large, spread over of infrastructure that typically accounts for solar and renewable energy projects.

Space hotels

SIG has also been proposing in the not to distant future tourism destination like space hotels, which its CEO, Mr Gene Meyers, describes as a revolving, earth-orbiting space station shaped like a giant wheel.

Mr Meyers hopes to start building the hotel in space by 2010 and to open it in 2015. He estimates that a one-week trip will cost $200,000, a company Web site said.

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