New Astrostrom Website
Arthur Woods / 24-04-2021
Switzerland: an Astrostrom Startup Nation?
What are Switzerland's future energy options?
Can renewables replace nuclear power and fossil fuels by 2050?
Switzerland's Energy Dilemma
By ratifying the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Switzerland has committed to become CO2 neutral by the year 2050. The 2011 Fukushima reactor disaster has pushed the Swiss government to progressively retreat from nuclear power. These two simultaneous goals will bring the country to face an Energy Dilemma which is described in the first section of this website. To meet its 2050 goals, several energy reduction measures and policies are being implemented as well as increasing support for inland renewable energy production. An analysis of Switzerland’s current energy options shows that, regardless of such measures, available renewable energy options such as hydroelectric, wind and solar photovoltaic, while useful and necessary, cannot be sufficiently scaled to replace both nuclear power and carbon fossil fuel energy sources by the year 2050. This will result in major economic and societal consequences for the country if sufficient clean energy resources cannot be secured.
A Space Energy Option for Switzerland
The second section of this website introduces the Space Energy Option - the concept of harvesting energy in space to address Switzerland’s energy dilemma. To demonstrate its economic feasibility, a cost comparison between a Solar Power Satellite (SPS) and a nuclear power station of comparable capacity is made using a simple Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) calculation by making a comparison of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) costs of both systems. Then the price per kWh delivered by SPS is then compared with the current price of solar power in Switzerland to determine a profitability scenario. The analysis indicates that Switzerland could not only provide sufficient CO2 neutral energy to meet its 2050 policy goals, but potentially could also achieve energy independence that is both sustainable and profitable.
Switzerland's First Steps
The final two sections describe two energy from space proposals from Switzerland that are currently being evaluated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Space Option Star (S⊕S) is a Space Solar Power (SSP) demonstrator and represents a logical early step for any Astrostrom development program. The Greater Earth Lunar Power Station (GE⊕-LPS) is a habitable space power station in lunar orbit that could provide a solution to the biggest obstacle to realizing Space-Based Solar Power which is launching a solar power satellite from the surface of Earth.
Visit new Website: astrostrom.ch
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