The power industry is bottlenecked by the grid - adding more renewables and electrifying more things will only make the grid less stable. The grid is buckling due to the increasing use of variable sources of electricity, decreasing grid reliability, increasing delays in building electrical infrastructure, and increasing demand for electricity. The Base Power Company is trying to fix this problem by deploying connected batteries across the grid. These batteries will store energy for use when needed, reducing strain on the grid.

While the idea of space-based solar power sounds good, there are many potential problems that could doom such a project. Such a misadventure would undermine the credibility of the responsible space agency and waste capital that could be spent improving less risky methods of renewable energy. This article presents a roadmap of the potential challenges that must be overcome before orbital solar power can become truly appealing to electrical utilities.

DAWN is a project from Synhelion that aims to remove the dependency on fossil fuels from the transport sector, particularly in aviation. It uses a 65-foot-high solar tower surrounded by a mirror field that concentrates solar rays to produce synthetic fuels using solar heat. The tower has an energy storage system that allows it to generate solar fuel even when there's no sunlight. DAWN is scheduled to begin production in the latter half of the year. Synhelion says DAWN will produce several thousand liters of fuel per year.