InfinitX

The mission is to make electricity more and easily accessible to all people irrespective of where they live.

The solution to making electricity accessible to everyone is space-based solar power (SBSP). Several satellites are launched into geosynchronous orbits of different inclinations to cover the entire surface of the earth. As they are well above the atmosphere, the amount of solar energy they are exposed to is significantly higher than that on the surface. Each spacecraft has a mirror assembly that gathers solar energy and focuses it into a PV-magnetron assembly where the final output is electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range. This is then beamed to the ground where it would be collected by rectennas (receiving antennas) around the world. The rectennas convert the microwave radiation to DC electricity, which can be then inverted or amplified to the desired output. This method is analogous to SpaceX's Starlink mission for internet connectivity. This mission can further be extended to make electric vehicles that have rectennas installed on them so that no external charging is required as long as the vehicle operates under an open sky.

The problem I'm trying to solve is people still having no access to electricity in today's world. According to a UN report, around 759 million people didn't have access to electricity in 2019, and they project that 660 million people would still be in the same situation in 2030. Most of these populations lie in the African and Asian regions. Besides, it is important not to presume that the remaining population are having access to reliable electricity. People in many developing countries face periodic power outages, as most of the power is being redirected for industrial and commercial purposes. Furthermore, the world population trend is going up. Without access to electricity, people are not having the deserved access to healthcare, education, and luxury. I still remember reading in the newspaper the news of the death of two babies in incubators due to power failure in a rural part of India.

This is the proportion of people with access to electricity in different countries in 2019:

The global average in 2019 was 90%. Most of the time, we are blinded by this average, while there are still many countries that need substantial growth in this sector, and this concept would be an enabler of that goal.

The main targets here are the least-developed and developing countries in Africa and Asia. Most of these people live in sub-Saharan Africa which hosts a huge population in a huge land area. This means demand is greater than supply and most people live at locations far from the electric grid. Although sub-Saharan Africa is one of the best places for solar farms, solar power is not reliable and technologically not efficient. Using space-based solar power, these problems can be overcome; houses, schools, hospitals, and pretty much any building do not require a wired connection to the grid; people can access electricity in a reliable way, without worrying about cloudy weather conditions.

I have been researching this area using the UN's sustainable development goals report of 2021, and it is clear that even though we make progress in increasing electricity access, the number of people with no access does not decline as we would expect because of the rising population and economic disruptions. For example, the C-19 pandemic has caused many people to go jobless, which means some people who previously had access to electricity were forced to divert that budget for other basic expenses like food and clothes. C-19 is a global pandemic. But there are a lot of local disruptions too which would not gain worldwide attention. Particularly, the least-developed African countries have more diseases than other parts of the world, but without the basic amenities like electricity, they could not invest in pharmaceuticals.

The 7th UN Sustainable Development Goal - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and 

Today, the world is driven by electricity. For a country to develop, it has to have a lot of industrial and commercial developments, for which electricity is the main input. With that lacking, a country would not be able to shine globally. Of course, there are a lot of other important factors to be considered, but with this solution, I aim to create a world with no individual left without electricity access.

Although the concept of Space-Based Solar Power has been around for nearly 50 years, it was not economically feasible because of the high launch cost per kg of the payload, and the lack of consistent research has kept it inert since now. Currently, few countries are researching the method; Caltech is planning to test this method in 2023. Compared to the other advancements made in the space sector and other fields, this concept is going real slow, and we do not have a proof of concept yet. I hope to hasten the process by entirely focusing on this area and bringing it into reality.

The technologies included are mostly in the electrical engineering domain. A satellite used in this method has PV cells and magnetrons onboard. Currently, PV cells are not as efficient as their counterparts, so I would invest in developing a novel technology to efficiently convert solar radiation to electricity. On the ground, rectennas are used. Rectennas are currently used in small devices and even in nanotechnology but for a large-scale project like this, I would invest in developing a rectenna or rectenna farm with greater size to capture most of the incoming radiation.

As there is no proof of concept, I would not be able to serve people any time soon. This idea requires a great deal of support which can only be achieved by partnerships and it would take some time. However, in the end, I hope to serve the entire human population with this method, not only for houses and buildings but also for vehicles and almost anything that uses electricity as an input.

The goal for 2022 is to attract more people to this idea, form partnerships, conduct rigorous research, and develop a proof of concept.

I hope to achieve these by utilizing opportunities and resources in grad school, attending conferences and networking events to pitch this goal, and by forming a great team.

Technical challenges remain for this concept. Even if the concept proved to be feasible, financial hardships would still remain, as lots of satellites would have to be launched to geosynchronous orbits. If in the future, companies like SpaceX find a way to cut the payload cost, financial barriers would be eliminated.