GEEO – Greater Earth Energy Organization

A Space Solution to a Terrestrial Problem

Arthur R. Woods (*)

This article proposes the creation of the Greater Earth Energy Organization (GEEO) to address both the Energy Trilemma and the Climate Emergency with a global initiative based on existing and established examples as a means to implement the Greater Earth Energy Option. The primary goal of the GEEO is to provide the entire world with an inexhaustible supply of environmentally clean energy in an equitable, economical, sustainable and socially just manner.

Abstract

“Greater Earth” is a region defined by the Earth’s gravitational field, which includes the Moon. To supply Earth with a substantial percentage of its future energy needs will require the development of Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) systems derived from lunar resources. This paper proposes the creation of a Greater Earth Energy Organisation (GEEO) based on organizational precedents such as Intelsat, ITER and ESA. The primary goal of the GEEO is to provide an inexhaustible supply of environmentally clean energy to Earth in an equitable, economical, sustainable and socially just manner. The GEEO would be set up as Public-Private Partnership (PPP). The public entity would be an autonomous, multi-national treaty organisation, consisting of nation-stakeholders, independent of any other governmental organisation or influence, with a mutual interest to achieve energy security, while meeting their climate goals. To achieve a 100% fair and equal participatory plan reflecting the energy procurement and development process, and to stimulate responsible energy use, each public member’s contribution to the GEEO would be determined by an efficiency coefficient that is based on its population and its per capita energy consumption and distributed on juste retour (fair return) principle. The private entity will be a consortium of companies, institutions, organisations and individuals providing competence and supporting technologies. Such a PPP would de-risk the initial investment and regulatory issues of energy procurement and lunar development as well as de-risk geopolitical tensions over the control and distribution of energy.

Introduction - The Energy Trilemma

Humanity is at a crossroads: it must decide if it prefers to live and prosper in an energy-rich world or attempt to survive in an energy poor-one. Finding a viable solution to the impending energy and climate crises confronting humanity is urgently necessary. The fundamental causes of these interrelated issues are the many environmental and geopolitical issues associated with the continued use of fossil fuels added to the fact that these are projected to become more problematic to extract and distribute, and ever more conflict prone. Policies to reduce energy consumption and inadequate measures currently being implemented by many nations to address these issues are resulting in energy insecurity. Indeed, the control over the production and distribution of oil and gas is at the core of current military conflicts which are, in turn, impacting the global economy. Thus, a sensible transition to a reliable, sufficient and environmentally neutral alternative source of energy is imperative to preserve and sustain present civilisation, and to provide future generations with sufficient energy and hope for prosperity and peace.

 

The world is facing an Energy Trilemma which refers to the challenge of balancing three critical objectives in energy policy:

1. Energy Security:Ensuring a reliable and uninterrupted supply of energy.
2. Energy Sustainability: Reducing the environmental impact of energy production and consumption.
3. Energy Affordability: Providing affordable and accessible energy to all.

Addressing the Energy Trilemma is about creating a balance.  How do we ensure there is enough energy (security), at an affordable price (affordability) while minimizing the impact to the environment (sustainability)?

Balancing these three dimensions is complex because improvements in one area can often lead to trade-offs in another. For example, increasing energy security by relying on fossil fuels might compromise environmental sustainability. Similarly, making energy more affordable can sometimes conflict with efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The concept is widely used by policymakers and energy leaders to guide decisions and strategies for sustainable energy transitions.

The Greater Earth Energy Option

A feasible near-term energy option that has recently become available to humanity for addressing this situation is called: Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP). SBSP is currently being researched and developed in Europe, United States, China, Australia, Russia, South Korea and Japan. These ongoing SBSP efforts are testimony to the growing worldwide recognition of the potential contribution of SBSP to addressing the world’s worsening climate and energy problems. If these efforts continue, they will lead to the development of a series of increasingly powerful test-satellites that will be needed before a major investment of the order of billions of Euros/Dollars will become feasible.

All current Space Power Satellite (SPS) concepts are designed to be launched from the surface of Earth and have launch masses between 2,000 and 10,000 metric tonnes (MT) per GW. Consequently, installing a single 1-GW SPS into High Elliptical (HEO) or into Geostationary (GEO) orbit around Earth will require 100’s of launches by a fully-reusable, heavy lift launch system such as SpaceX’s Starship or China’s Long March 9 which are currently under development but not yet operational. Another consideration is the impact on the atmosphere by launching thousands of rockets that will be needed to deploy SPS on the scale of multiple hundreds of GWs needed to become a viable energy alternative to terrestrial energy systems. These crucial points need to be emphasized if SBSP is to be considered as an economically feasible and sustainable long-term source of clean energy that does not produce harmful pollution.

Consequently, based on these logistical and environmental considerations and constraints, successfully implementing SBSP will require the establishment of SPS manufacturing facilities on the Moon - a concept called the Greater Earth Energy Option. This option can be used, not only to produce SPS components, but in an earlier stage also for the in-situ production of rocket propellant. Although the initial investment would be slightly higher than Earth-only launched SPS systems, the self-accelerating flywheel-effects in the process of building up a lunar economy, would come into operation quite early and would make the whole system more robust and less dependent on political and economic developments on Earth.

This lunar approach to realizing SBSP could reduce the amount of mass for a SPS launched from Earth by 80% or more as well as reducing costs and the related CO2 emissions. The establishment of industrial-scale, robotic beneficiation and processing plants on the Moon will provide access to several other materials, which could become valuable to other users in the cislunar region. This would also create many other benefits in addition to providing sufficient clean energy for Earth, such as a commitment to achieving a peaceful energy transition, the development of a cislunar transportation system, mining, processing, and manufacturing facilities on the Moon and in orbit, resulting in a two-planet economy and the birth of a spacefaring civilization. This is the ‘Business Case’ for going to the Moon.

CHF 100 Billion for the GEEO

Implementing the Greater Earth Energy Option on the necessary scale, and in a suitable time frame to meet urgent climate and energy goals will require substantial financial investment and global cooperation. The estimated cost of implementing the Greater Earth Energy Option is on the order of one hundred billion Swiss francs (CHF). The amount of CHF 100 billion used as a baseline for the necessary infrastructure investment, comes from the feasibility study conducted by Astrostrom GmbH for the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2022-2023, called the Greater Earth Lunar Power Station (ESA Contract No: 4000136309/21/NL/GLC/ov.). The study detailed an innovative concept for manufacturing Solar Power Satellite (SPS) components from lunar materials. The study showed that the terrestrial energy market and the need for clean energy are the economic drivers for utilising the resources of the Moon for energy production [1].

As a comparison, the US Artemis programme to return Americans to the Moon is reported to have already cost over $96 billion and projected spending costs up to 2030 are estimated at $150 billion. While the results of the Artemis missions may return many science, technology and exploration benefits, the Artemis programme is not aimed at any specific market or payback objectives [2].

Compared with the yearly budgets of the European Space Agency – €8.26 billion for 2026 [3] and NASA’s 2026 budget, – $27.5 billion [4] – the CHF 10 billion yearly budget of the GEEO is between the budgets of these two space agencies. Whereas these space agencies are mandated to develop numerous space technologies and exploration programmes, the GEEO will be focused on providing clean energy from space for the benefit of its partners.

In Phase 1, 2026-2027: Establishment of the GEEO international association in Switzerland. Operations will be funded by membership fees from the private members of the PPP.  The GEEO will assemble a dedicated team of space, energy, legal, and lobbying experts who will prepare the rationale, the legal infrastructure and the treaty document for enlisting the member nations to join the GEEO.

Phase 2, 2028-2029: begins once the GEEO has been set-up and specific research and development programmes have been selected for development and the first stakeholder nations have joined the PPP. It will have a planned yearly budget of CHF 100 million for the research and development activities. The GEEO will manage the technology development and implementation of SBSP technologies as well as the administrative tasks of the GEEO consortium.

Phase 3, 2030-2039: is the implementation period based on the results of the research and development of the previous phases. The GEEO will continue to administer operations manage and direct the technology development and implementation of the SBSP programmes. To implement SBSP, the GEEO should have a yearly budget of CHF 10 billion. 

 

 

CHF 11 billion will be used for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operations including a Cargo Relay Station and test platform in low equatorial orbit. This will be used as a logically convenient site for preliminary testing of SPS components and as a way station to GEO and lunar orbits.

• CHF 16 billion is earmarked for Solar Power Satellite development. This includes support for any current SPS technology or project that is considered viable or compatible with GEEO’s overall goals.
• CHF 10 billion is earmarked for the development of a heavy-lift reusable launch system with the capability to send large payloads to GEO and to the Moon. Currently Starship is being developed by SpaceX in the US and the Long March 9 in China. A heavy lift launcher code-named PROTEIN is being studied by ESA with two concepts under consideration by ArianeGroup and Rocket Factory Augsburg. Ensuring access to space using reusable vehicles is considered essential for the economical implementation of SBSP and the deployment of Solar Power Satellites [7].
• CHF 11 billion is earmarked for the development of the Cislunar Transportation System including Cislunar shuttles, a Lunar Landing Gantry, and a Lunar Space Elevator [6].
• CHF 44 billion will be used to develop and deploy lunar manufacturing and mining operations. Existing terrestrial technologies will be adapted to the lunar environment and modularized for transport to the Moon.
• CHF 8 billion will be used for human crew operations and facilities in orbit and on the Moon.

GEEO – the Greater Earth Energy Organisation

Astrostrom proposes the establishment of a Greater Earth Energy Organisation (GEEO) as an international Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to enable and implement the Greater Earth Energy Option.  The primary goal of the Public-Private Partnership is to efficiently provide an inexhaustible supply of environmentally clean energy to the entire world in an equitable, economical, sustainable and socially just manner.

The public entityrepresents an autonomous multi-national treaty organisation will consist of nation-stakeholders, independent of any other governmental organisation or influence, with a mutual interest to achieve energy security for their nations while reaching climate goals. The requirements and operations will be established by a treaty agreement among the participating nations. Each public member’s contribution to the GEEO would be determined by an efficiency coefficient that is based on its population and its per capita energy consumption and distributed on juste retour (fair return) principle. As such, on a per capita basis, each member’s contribution to the GEEO is equal.

The private entity will be a consortium of companies, institutions, organisations and individuals with a strong motivation to transform the fossil fuel age into the space energy age. These private entities will provide competence and supporting technologies. The private entity will be managed on a membership basis by the GEEO association. Membership fees will be specific for each membership category and decided by GEEO board and approved by the general assembly. 

The GEEO will be incorporated as an international NGO association based in Switzerland and will be responsible for setting-up and administering the PPP, coordinating and interfacing with the public and private entities and then managing the research and development programmes. The operations of the GEEO will be financed by the membership fees of the private entity and by a percentage of the yearly contributions to the budget from the public entities.

The Greater Earth Energy Organisation (GEEO) is considered as the most promising approach to implementing the Greater Earth Energy Option and, by doing so, taking a decisive step towards creating a new worldwide ‘space energy industry’. This approach will de-risk the initial investment while also allowing the GEEO to address the regulatory issues of spectrum allocation, orbital positioning, energy distribution issues, and compliance with international treaties and laws. Of further importance, this collaborative global organisation should become a catalyst for reducing geopolitical tensions over the control and distribution of energy resources, not the least through greatly increasing the supply of energy worldwide.

The GEEO will be established as an autonomous not-for-profit international association to manage the interface between the public and private partner entities. The main advantage to having such an organisational and legal structure will be to avoid conflict or destructive competition between nations, and to provide a transparent process for the development and eventual distribution of this new space energy resource.  The approach will also make the GEEO compliant with existing international space treaties and accords. As such, it will address the political issues related to the ownership and control of extraterrestrial resources and specifically lunar resources which is currently a much-debated topic in space circles.

As technological and economic progress are closely correlated with per capita energy consumption, there is a close fundamental correlation between the stage of development of a country and its energy consumption. Developed countries have the highest per capita consumption of energy. Poorest, least developed countries have the lowest per capita consumption.

To achieve, as far as possible, a fair participatory plan reflecting the energy procurement and development process, and to stimulate energy use responsibility, each member’s contribution to GEEO will be determined by an efficiency coefficient that is based on its population and its per capita energy consumption. A country with a high per capita consumption of energy and a small population would contribute correspondingly more into the GEEO budget than a country with a large population and lower per capita energy consumption calculated on a per capita basis.

Although all nations are welcome to join the GEEO, the initial target nations are those nations with existing space agencies or space programmes. In 2023, 74 different government space agencies are in existence, including 68 national space agencies and six international agencies. These space agencies include ESA with 22 full members and 9 associate members. The African Space Agency includes 55 member states of the African Union. Some of the members of these agencies have their own national programs. Another 28 nations are considering establishing their own space agency. Considered to be the most likely candidates, all these nations will be contacted and invited to join the GEEO [8].

However, any nation may join the GEEO. The first nation to join the GEEO will become the Anchor Stakeholder and will be the first country to contribute to the GEEO budget. This nation would sign a ‘Partnership’ contract with the GEEO which officially establishes the PPP arrangement and establishes the parameters for subsequent member nations. Having an Anchor Stakeholder will help to attract and motivate other stakeholders to join the GEEO.

The GEEO will be modelled on existing and established international organisational examples as a dedicated collaborative approach to implementing SBSP. These examples include Intelsat, ITER and ESA, the European Space Agency.

• INTELSAT (1964-2001) an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communication satellites before it became privatized in 2001. Financing was shared among the participating members according to members’ so-called investment shares which were proportional to each member’s use of the system, as determined on an annual basis [9].
• ITER (International Thermal Experimental Reactor project) an intergovernmental organization that was created by an international agreement signed in 2006. The purpose of the ITER Organization is to “provide for and promote cooperation among the Members on the ITER Project,” an international collaboration to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes. It acts as the overall integrator of the project and nuclear operator of the ITER facility [10].
• ESA, the European Space Agency was founded in 1975, with the ESA Convention signed on 30 May 1975 by its ten founding states. ESA’s activities fall into two categories – ‘mandatory’ and ‘optional’. Programmes carried out under the General Budget and the Space Science programme budget are ‘mandatory’; they include the agency’s basic activities (studies on future projects, technology research, shared technical investments, information systems and training programmes). Optional programmes cover areas such as Earth observation, telecommunications, satellite navigation and space transportation. Similarly, the International Space Station and microgravity research are financed by optional contributions.
  From its beginning, ESA has applied a principle of juste retour (fair return) in its industrial procurement policy of geographical distribution. The juste retourprinciple means that national contributions are distributed only to selected research teams from that particular country. Simply stated this is based on the ratio between the share of the weighted value of contracts a member country receives, and the country’s contributions paid to ESA. This percentage of a member’s contribution is called the “industrial return coefficient”. For example, with a coefficient of 98% a member country can expect to receive 98% of its annual contribution in the value of contracts placed with its local industries [11].

Ideally, the GEEO should be based in a neutral country with a credible regulatory framework. For political, legal and economic considerations, an ideal nation for locating the GEEO would be Switzerland which hosts more than 40 international organizations with over 25,000 staff. These include international organizations such as the IOC. The International Olympic Committee (in French, Comité International Olympique CIO) and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) have their headquarters in Switzerland, and both are registered as “associations” which, under Swiss law, allows them to have a tax-free status if requested. Both organizations manage budgets amounting to billions of dollars. Other examples are the World Health Organization (WHO), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and the World Economic Forum (WEF), some of which have additional diplomatic privileges. However, other nations may wish to host the GEEO.

Any nation may join the public entity of the GEEO-PPP and participate in the GAP (General Assembly of Partners). The GAP will meet regularly and together with GEEO directorate, determine its immediate development goals and set a corresponding yearly budget to achieve these goals.  A yearly congress including member nations, their technology sectors that have become involved, and the GEEO private partners will exchange information, discuss challenges and solutions, collaborate and plot the needed research and development programs.

GEAU – the Greater Earth Accounting Unit

As the GEEO is an international consortium of nations and each country has its own economy and currency, an internal accounting unit will need to be established that can be equitably used among the members for setting the yearly budget and for accounting purposes. This enables a fair and just accounting practice and avoids the geopolitical use of any currency as an instrument of monetary policy, speculation and/or economic warfare.

Before the Euro became an established currency in the EU, ESA used a similar “accounting unit” approach among its members. Therefore, GEEO will establish the GEAU as the Greater Earth Accounting Unit for its budgetary and accounting purposes. Coincidentally GEAU is pronounced the same as GEEO. In the initial phases of development, the GEAU will be associated with or “backed by” to a terrestrial commodity such as a precious metal. Gold has been traditionally used in this function and a number of nations including Russia, China and India are currently stockpiling gold to value back their currencies and as a way to decouple their currency from the so called “petro dollar” and the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency which has given the United States many economic advantages that other countries do not have.

Thus, gold will be used as a precious metal commodity for backing the GEAU in its initial stages, as the GEAU needs to have a worldwide recognized value and precious metals such as gold have an historical role. Therefore, as a country’s yearly contribution to GEEO would be in calculated in GEAUs, a country would have to possess an equivalent verifiable amount of gold in its own national reserves. The current (May 2026) price for 1 gram of gold is CHF 135; 1 kilogram is CHF 117,400. The GEAU could be pegged as such: 1 GEAU = 1 gram of gold [12].

This would not be a cumulative but a progressive reserve as the country will receive a large percentage of its yearly contribution via the geographical industrial return policy and its GEAU contribution would be assessed on a yearly basis. In this case, a country may have to increase its gold reserves to meet an increasing budgetary requirement for the subsequent year.  For the more developed countries this should not pose a problem. For the lesser developed countries this growing reserve of gold would likely add value to its own currency.

Once the GEEO starts to produce and distribute energy the intrinsic value of the GEAU would then be based on the value of the power it is producing and the terrestrial commodity reserves of gold which served to back the original contributions could be used by the nations for other purposes.  Simply stated, the member nations of GEEO-PPP agree to use the GEAU for all of its accounting purposes and the nations agree that their yearly contribution in the form of GEAUs will be backed by gold. Once electrical power is being generated and distributed, the value of the GEAU becomes pegged to the value of the energy it is distributing or selling. An added advantage to this concept is when the GEEO must purchase materials or services outside of its member consortium. For these transactions, the GEAU which is pegged to the price of gold could conceivably be converted into whatever currency necessary for this purpose.

As all the GEEO members have all mutually financed and developed the Greater Earth Energy Option, the electrical power they will receive will be based on the cost of operation and maintenance of the space power system and will be calculated in GEAUs. Similar to how hydro-electrical systems function today as there is no cost added for the fuel. Likewise, space power systems once installed should have very long energy producing lifetimes. Nuclear power and fossil fuel powered electrical generation systems on the other hand, must also add the price of fuel to their market price.

In the first phase of the GEEO any nation may join by signing the GEEO Treaty Agreement and pay the yearly contribution and participating in the GAP. When the research and development phase has been completed and implementation of the space power system has commenced, the GAP may require an adjusted initial fee for new nations to join the GEEO as a public partner. Once electrical power is being produced and distributed, excess power may be sold to non-members at whatever market value that has been determined by the GEEO.  This approach should create an incentive for many nations to join the GEEO-PPP as soon as possible.

The technology development program would focus on finding efficiencies by using existing facilities and through the mass production of standardized elements such as the launch system and the space power components using automated manufacturing whenever possible. Robotic systems would be deployed to assist the construction of the space power systems in orbit.  In the case of using of lunar materials, a human presence would also likely be required. Fortunately, several nations are currently developing plans to set up facilities on the Moon.

If all the nations of the world would agree to join the GEEO in order to address the climate and energy emergencies with commitment and enthusiasm, within 10 years (which is less time than the US needed to complete the Apollo program) the world could conceivably begin to receive environmentally clean energy in inexhaustible quantities and the Greater Earth Energy Option would become economically self-sufficient. As such, by the end of the century, energy would become as ubiquitous as air and water for future generations.

The Geopolitical and Legal Dimensions

The GEEO will be incorporated as a not-for-profit Public-Private Partnership international association. The public entity will be governed by a multi-national treaty. The private entity consisting of companies, institutions, organisations and individuals will be governed by the statues of the GEEO association.  The main advantage to having such a structure would be to avoid conflict and competition between nations and to provide a transparent process for the development and eventual distribution of this new energy resource.

The legal framework for the eventual use of extraterrestrial resources rests with the Outer Space Treaty (OST) which forms the basis of international space law. The OST entered into force on October 10, 1967. As of 2026, 118 nations are parties to the treaty (i.e., have ratified or acceded) to the Outer Space Treaty, and another 20 have signed but not completed ratification [13].

The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework on international space law, including the following principles:

• the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind;
• outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States;
• outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means;
• States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;
• the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes;
• astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind;
• States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities;
• States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and
• States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.

With regards to the development of the Greater Earth Energy Option several articles are of particular importance which further gives credence to having an international approach.

Article I: The exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind. Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies.

Article II: Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.

Article III: States Parties to the Treaty shall carry on activities in the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, in accordance with international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, in the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international co-operation and understanding.

Article IV: The Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes.

Article VI:  States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with the provisions set forth in the present Treaty.  The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty. When activities are carried on in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, by an international organization, responsibility for compliance with this Treaty shall be borne both by the international organization and by the States Parties to the Treaty participating in such organization.

Article IX: In the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, States Parties to the Treaty shall be guided by the principle of co-operation and mutual assistance and shall conduct all their activities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, with due regard to the corresponding interests of all other States Parties to the Treaty.

Article XIII: Any practical questions arising in connection with activities carried on by international intergovernmental organizations in the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be resolved by the States Parties to the Treaty either with the appropriate international organization or with one or more States members of that international organization, which are Parties to this Treaty.

To adhere to the provisions of the OST, and to avoid any potential conflicts, it would advantageous and indeed practical if all the current signatories would become members of the GEEO.

GEEO Budget Scenarios

It is useful to use Switzerland’s yearly contribution to the European Space Agency budget as a reference for illustrating GEEO budget scenarios using the efficiency coefficient. Reference: ESA’s total budget for 2024 was €7.88 billion and Switzerland’s contribution is €200.8 million which was approximately 3.8% of the Activities and Programmes budget [14].

ESA 2024 Budget (sceenshot from ESA website)

Adhering to a concept of fair return and geographical distribution, an equal percentage (90%) of a country’s yearly contribution to GEEO will be re-invested  in that country through contracts that are placed with its local industries and organisations. With a larger number of participating member countries, the budget can be larger while the per country contribution will be smaller.

The GEEO budget tables below incorporate the efficiency coefficient for each country to calculate their yearly contribution to the GEEO.The first two tables use the ESA members and associate countries. ESA comprises 22 Member States and 9 countries with cooperation agreements (ESA, Member States & Cooperating States). The last two tables incorporate data from 42 countries from different regions of the world.

The data was obtained from:
Our World in Data: Population 2021
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/population-and-demography

Our World in Data: Primary energy consumption per capita 2022
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-energy-use

CHF 100 million yearly budget with ESA members & associate nations

CHF 100 million/year GEEO budget (ESA Member States). Average per capita contribution = CHF 0.194
Switzerland’s projected yearly contribution = CHF 1,273,413.
90% or CHF 1,146,072 would flow back to Switzerland’s industries.

 

CHF 10 billion yearly budget with ESA members & associate nations

CHF 100 million/year budget with 42 GEEO member countries. Average per capita contribution = CHF 0.043
Switzerland’s projected yearly contribution = CHF 284,732.
CHF 256,259 represents the fair return.

CHF 10 billion yearly budget with 42 GEEO member nations

CHF 10 billion/year GEEO budget (ESA Member States). Average per capita contribution = CHF 19.20
Switzerland’s projected yearly contribution = CHF 127,341,306.
90% or CHF 114,607,175 would be allocated to Swiss industries.

CHF 100 million yearly budget 42 GEEO member nations

CHF 10 billion/year budget with 42 GEEO member countries. Average per capita contribution = CHF 4.20
Switzerland’s projected yearly contribution = CHF 28,473,243.
Fair return = CHF 25,625,918.

As mentioned above, the anticipated implementation budget of the GEEO in the amount of CHF 100 billion to develop the necessary technology and infrastructure has been itemized in Astrostrom’s GE⊕-LPS Final Report to ESA. An initial investment of CHF 100 billion should not seem unreasonable if it can solve humanity’s energy and environmental issues, while generating major new economic opportunities and stimulating peaceful cooperation worldwide.

Conclusions

Having access to plentiful clean energy is the key to addressing the Energy Trilemma and avoiding wars over the control and distribution of energy resources. Previous easily obtainable fossil fuels are reaching critical levels and are currently the source of international military conflict threatening global economic stability. Terrestrial alternative energy sources including nuclear, wind and ground solar cannot be realistically scaled to replace fossil fuels at present or at future consumption levels.  The only technologically near-term alternative currently available to humanity is the Greater Earth Energy Option which is to harvest inexhaustible clean energy in space for meeting humanity’s energy needs on Earth and to do that with lunar resources.

Although engineering will still be a substantial challenge, no technological or scientific breakthroughs are necessary for developing this energy option. The standard criticism for deploying a space solar power system has been the initial cost, especially the cost of launching massive amounts of hardware into orbit. Mass producing fully reusable launch systems and automatizing the manufacturing process of the space power systems will bring down these costs and the use of lunar materials could further reduce costs and the environmental impact of launching space solar power systems from the surface of the Earth.

Global primary energy consumption is currently on the order of 190,000 terawatt‑hours (TWh) per year, and electricity consumption is about 32,000 TWh per year (2025 data). Projected world energy demand based on estimated population projections will approach 300,000 TWh of power annually. Distributed equally, this would be a per capita energy consumption of 3 kW which could lead to worldwide prosperity.  The estimated value of this energy market will grow to at least US $25-35 trillion but probably much more.

Our World in Data – Data source: Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2025); Smil (2017) [17].

 

The creation the GEEO – the Greater Earth Energy Organization as an international collaborative organization and using an internal accounting commodity-based unit such as the GEAU could, in principle, practically “bootstrap” the development and deployment of the Greater Earth Energy Option whereas the only financial “risk” would be backing the GEAU with a commodity such as gold until the moment when power from space systems becomes widely available to the GEEO members and to the entire world. At this point the system should become economically self-sufficient.

To ensure transparency and accountability, the GEEO should be incorporated as a not-for-profit multi-national treaty association in the form of a Public-Private Partnership and under the laws of a neutral country with a credible regulatory framework. An intergovernmental organization such as GEEO would automatically adhere to the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty and avoid possible international legal obstacles that could evolve in the case of a single nation or corporate entity. Implementing the Greater Earth Energy Option, if successful and timely, could diffuse current and future geopolitical conflicts over the control of the remaining finite fossil fuels while avoiding a massive de-industrialization of society to meet net-zero CO2 climate goals.  Terrestrial alternative energy sources will continue to be developed and deployed intelligently to ease the energy transition to a space-based option, but their overall energy production potential and their environmental impact will need to be realistically evaluated.

Most people would agree that it would be preferable to live in an energy rich world rather than in an energy poor world. This applies not only to our standard of living but also having sufficient energy to tackle other global problems such as restoring the environment, adapting to climate change, providing adequate clean water, ending poverty as well as providing hope for a positive and peaceful future for all humanity.  If existing alternative terrestrial energy resources cannot be realistically scaled to meet humanity’s future energy needs and as a replacement for fossil fuels, then neither will regulatory frameworks, taxes on CO2, carbon trading schemes, nor new business models to change society’s energy habits. The time to address and solve the Energy Trilemma and the Climate Emergency is now. Creating the GEEO and implementing the Greater Earth Energy Option is a realistic, pragmatic and equitable way to do so. As it is an “option” it should be evaluated and compared with all other energy security and climate mitigation options currently available to humanity.

While humanity is indeed at a crossroads, it is also on the threshold of transforming the energy-constrained Fossil Fuel Age into the energy-abundant Space Energy Age.

 

(*) Arthur R. Woods is an independent researcher and astronautical artist based in Switzerland with two art projects successfully flown on the Mir space station. He is co-founder with Marco C. Bernasconi of The Space Option concept. He is member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

 

The GEEO website is under construction at: https://geeo.earth

 

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