by Mike Snead
Here’s a summary of “Astroelectricity: America’s national energy security imperative” by Mike Snead (The Space Review, September 22, 2025). You can read the full article here. Learn more about Mike at The Spacefaring InstituteTM here.
Conclusions
Snead argues that space solar power–supplied astroelectricity is the only sustainable energy solution that is both large enough and practicable enough to enable America to replace its fossil carbon energy sources before depletion and avoid returning to energy insecurity. The scale of the energy transition is enormous, and only with strong government leadership, research, and early deployment of SSP can the U.S. ensure an orderly transition. To maintain national energy security, and protect future generations, Snead believes the development and deployment of astroelectricity must now be viewed as a strategic imperative.
Main Points
- The U.S. currently depends heavily on fossil fuels: oil, natural gas, and coal supply about 70–80 Quads of the ~100 Quads of primary energy consumption as of 2019.
- Technically recoverable oil and gas in the U.S. may last ~75 years at 2019 consumption levels, but with exports and growing use, the lifetime could be much shorter.
- To transition (“go clean”) to sustainable energy, two criteria are key: (1) sufficient scale, and (2) a practicable, orderly implementation. Political or symbolic solutions will not suffice.
- Of all sustainable energy sources, only a few are scalable to entirely replace fossil carbon fuels: intermittent wind, intermittent ground solar, baseload nuclear fission, and baseload space solar power (SSP), i.e. “astroelectricity.”
- Assessment of wind power: Even if large areas are used, in average years wind might supply ~68 % of the needed intermittent power; in low wind years that drops sharply; public/land-use acceptance is a major constraint.
- Ground solar farms: To meet the intermittent power need would require ~14 % of the U.S. contiguous land area—much of which overlaps with prime agriculture or unsuited terrain.
- Nuclear fission: To supply all baseload power would require many times current nuclear capacity; breeder reactors bring proliferation risks; decommissioning, waste, natural disasters, and terrorism risks also loom large.
- Astroelectricity (SSP): Collect sunlight in geostationary orbit, convert to electricity, beam to earth via radio/microwave, received by large rectenna farms. Supplies baseload power. Requires only a small fraction of U.S. land compared to terrestrial-only options.
- For example: to supply ~80 % of baseload power via astroelectricity, about 4,339 GW continuous (GWc) would be needed from SSP, requiring ~182,000 km² land for rectenna/plant sites—< 3 % of the contiguous U.S. land area.
Glossary of Terms Used
- BTU (British Thermal Unit)
A unit of thermal energy defined as the amount of heat needed to raise one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. 1 BTU ≈ 1,055 joules. Used to measure the energy content of fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. - BOE (Barrel of Oil Equivalent)
A unit that expresses energy content in terms of a barrel of crude oil. One BOE = 5.8 million BTU of thermal energy. Useful for comparing different fuels on a common basis. - Quad (Quadrillion BTUs)
A large-scale unit of energy equal to 1 quadrillion (10^15) BTUs. Commonly used to describe national energy consumption. For example, in 2019, the U.S. used about 100 Quads of primary energy. - GW (Gigawatt)
A measure of power equal to 1 billion watts (10^9 W). Often used to describe the size of power plants or electricity generation capacity. - GWc (Gigawatts Continuous)
A refinement of GW, meaning gigawatts of continuous power output, i.e., power delivered around the clock without interruption. Used to describe baseload capacity requirements for astroelectricity. - Technically Recoverable Resources
The portion of identified oil, gas, or coal reserves that can be produced with existing technology and practices, regardless of market price. - Primary Energy
Energy found in natural resources (like coal, oil, natural gas, wind, sunlight) before being converted into electricity, fuels, or heat for use by consumers. - Baseload Power
The minimum level of continuous power demand that must be met by an energy system. Technologies that can deliver baseload (like nuclear or space solar power) are especially valuable for energy security. - Rectenna
A large ground-based receiving antenna that converts microwave or radio wave transmissions from space solar power satellites back into usable electricity.
Citizens for Space Based Solar Power 