Pentagon Backs Space Solar Beacon as Overview Targets 2028 Test

Remote military bases could eventually draw electricity from solar panels in space. For now, the immediate task is much smaller: making sure that power reaches the right spot on Earth. The US Department of Defense has contracted Overview Energy to develop a targeting beacon for its proposed orbital solar system, according to OilPrice (direct), which cited reporting by Interesting Engineering.

The contract covers designing, building and testing a homing beacon—a signal that helps direct the energy beam toward receiving solar arrays on the ground. It backs a crucial part of Overview’s plan, rather than an already operating electricity supply. The complete system for transmitting power from space to Earth has not yet been demonstrated from orbit. A first demonstration is planned for 2028, with satellite deployment scheduled to begin in 2030.

Aiming power where it matters

Space-based solar power would collect sunlight above Earth and send the energy down using lasers or microwave beams, depending on the technology. The attraction is electricity generation beyond the daily sunset that limits ground-based solar panels. Overview plans a constellation of satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit, where satellites move around Earth in step with its rotation. The proposed system would direct energy toward receiving sites when it is needed.

That ability matters to the Pentagon, which wants space solar power for remote bases. Darko Filipi, Overview’s co-chief executive, described the link between space and the ground as the system’s most important element, according to Interesting Engineering, as cited by OilPrice. For military users, he said, delivery to precise locations is essential. The beacon contract focuses on that connection between collecting sunlight in orbit and making the energy useful below.

The commercial ambitions extend beyond defense. Overview, a four-year-old startup, also signed an agreement with Meta earlier this year to supply up to 1 gigawatt of space-based solar power. That is comparable to the output of a nuclear reactor. Meta owns Facebook and Instagram. The agreement gives the young company another major customer for a technology whose full orbital delivery chain remains unproven. Filipi told The Washington Post that Overview believes the system can supply electricity at utility scale—large enough for major power networks.

The promise meets the cost test

The proposal addresses problems already confronting terrestrial solar. Electricity production and demand do not always peak together, while storage capacity has fallen behind generating capacity. OilPrice links that mismatch to wasted electricity and periods of negative power prices. Land is another constraint: large solar farms can occupy thousands of acres. A 2022 McKinsey report cited in the article found that utility-scale solar needs at least ten times as much land per unit of power as coal- or gas-fired plants, including land for fuel production and transport.

Yet a working system would not automatically be a competitive one. Amory Lovins, a Stanford physicist and co-founder of energy think tank RMI, told The Washington Post that he questioned the economics even if the technology worked. He pointed to nuclear and geothermal power as established alternatives capable of providing round-the-clock electricity more cheaply.

Technical success would not settle the economic doubts — Amory Lovins, paraphrasing his comments to The Washington Post.

The next milestones are therefore concrete: the planned 2028 demonstration and the start of satellite deployment in 2030. Those steps would move Overview’s ambitions closer to an operating system. Whether that system can also deliver competitively priced electricity remains the larger commercial challenge.