Virtus Solis

​Virtus Solis is the world's first space-based solar power energy generation system able to directly compete with conventional and renewable energy sources with none of the drawbacks.

Created: 2021-07-28

Updated: 2024-02-29

Company - Virtus Solis

Founded
Country
2018
USA,UK
Funding
$0.4M+
Website
Virtus Solis
Social
Virtus Solis

Product/Service

Classification
Space Utilities
Category
Space Solar Power
Power Beaming
Resources - Energy
Fields
Space Solar Power
Wireless Power Transfer
Status
Development
First launch
2027

Was awarded $200,000 for the NASA Centennial Challenge: Watts on the Moon Phase 2. This challenge describes delivering energy across 3km from a variable source and delivering to a load at the other end - which we solved with our core wireless power transfer technology and a novel energy storage system. Won $200,000 as one of the 7 winning teams of Phase 2, Level 1 of NASA's Watts on the Moon Challenge.

Access to to low-cost energy is the greatest lever for universal prosperity. We believe the primary energy market, which is 85% powered by fossil fuels has no equitable path to sustainability with current technology. The intermittency and non-dispatchable nature of wind and terrestrial solar are not solvable with known battery energy storage at any cost. Space-based solar avoids the need for storage by beaming energy from sun-lit space through weather and night to anywhere on the planet.

Our solution is simultaneously scalable, low-cost, safe and clean. We can enable large scale desalination, recycling and chemical synthesis, as well as urban vertical farming as examples..

How our Space-Based Solar Power System Works:

  1. Solar power gathered in space by small satellites with high efficiency solar panels.
  2. Satellites are grouped into massive arrays--100,000 satellites for 100MW--allowing for a highly scalable energy platform.
  3. Satellites are in sunlight all of the time with long dwell time over the northern/southern hemisphere due to orbital characteristics.
  4. Solar energy is converted to microwaves to beam energy to ground - rectennas gather microwave energy and convert to electricity.
  5. Energy can then be sold into the power grid or supply high demand users with energy directly.

The first analysis tool able to simulate full scale orbital wireless power transfer. The below online optimization is the first to simulate more than 10^6 antennas, in fact it is 4.26x10^9 10GHz antennas in a 2km array operating at 37,000km separation.

Video of a panelized rectenna (centered on RF-absorbing thermal target) generating power at 100m which is two times orbital distance for the scale of the 1.15m transmit aperture. This is a fraction of the full system we are building, 2023-03-25.

The first fractional space based solar power system Proof of Concept demonstration, 2023-03-21

Orbital Composites and Virtus Solis announce space-based solar power demonstration, SpaceNews, 2024-01-01

In the next three years (from 2023), VS intends to fly an orbital pilot plant, with its first commercial deployment by 2030.

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