Apr. 17--A Southern California company is at the center of an effort to take the field of renewable energy to new heights: solar power from space.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the utility serving Northern and Central California, last week asked the state Public Utilities Commission to approve its proposal to buy 200 megawatts of clean power from Solaren Corp. of Manhattan Beach. The company, which was formed by a team of satellite engineers and space scientists, plans to put a solar power station in geosynchronous orbit. According to information posted on a PG&E Weblog, Solaren Chief Executive Officer Gary Spirnak said his company now consists of about 10 engineers and scientists, but will grow to 100 over the next year.

PG&E's request to purchase 200 megawatts would translate into enough electricity to power about 200,000 homes annually. But that would only occur if Solaren is successful in putting a functioning satellite into orbit. The company's goal is to start generating energy by 2016.

"Space Solar Power (SSP) uses satellites in geosynchronous orbit to collect solar energy, which is then transmitted to the ground for conversion into electricity," PG&E's application says. "More specifically, SSP satellites use solar cells to convert the sun's energy to electricity in space."

There are huge advantages to collecting solar power in space rather than on the Earth's surface. Solar collectors in space are eight to 10 times

more efficient than Earth-based solar arrays, and are not limited by atmospheric conditions such as cloud cover. And they are much less subject to nighttime disruptions that occur here on the surface. Using a satellite, the solar energy is efficiently converted to radio waves and beamed to a collection station on the ground. In the PG&E proposal, the energy receiver would be built in Fresno County, where it would be converted to electricity and sent into the power grid.

We're glad that companies are thinking outside the biosphere in the search for alternative energy -- and that scientific know-how in this region will be playing an important role in making it happen. We're convinced that this is no pie-in-the-sky idea, too. A Defense Department study concludes that, "A single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous Earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contained within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today."

Orbital solar power stations should be part of the solution to give the United States true energy independence. We hope the state's utilities, entrepreneurs and the scientists and engineers who have driven the Southern California aerospace industry will make this imaginative idea a reality in the decade ahead.

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