Value chain · CLM-0287
In plain terms
In 2023 and 2024, the UK government awarded about GBP 5.5 million in grants to 9 projects to develop space-based solar power technology and components, through a competition that opened in 2022 and was funded by the UK Space Agency and the old BEIS department. These are awards with named recipients and amounts, not just a plan. The government page lists award values; it does not report how much was paid out.
The claim as recorded
The UK Space Based Solar Power Innovation Competition (opened 2022-07-20; funded jointly by the UK Space Agency and the former BEIS Net Zero Innovation Portfolio) made grant awards to 9 projects, worth GBP 5,478,979 (nominal) in total as summed here from the published award values, across 4 lots -- wireless power transmission, high concentration solar PV, SBSP energy systems engineering, and SBSP space mission architecture feasibility studies -- against a stated ceiling of "up to GBP 3 million with potential for an additional amount of up to GBP 3 million"; the award list was last updated 2024-04-17.
Scope and limits
This is grant funding for component- and study-level R&D (TRL 1-6 at project start), not funding for a full-scale demonstrator or an operational system. One of the 9 recipients, Space Solar Engineering Ltd, is later named as a partner on the 2025 RAF036/2425 feasibility report held as SRC-076 (title page and PDF p.2); another recipient, Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd, is not named in that report. And the three CASSIOPeiA-branded awards (CASSIE, C3P0/A, CASSiDI) all trace to the same Ian Cash / Space Solar / Satellite Applications Catapult design lineage already flagged elsewhere in the register. Treat these awards as corroborating one design lineage, not as three independent confirmations of CASSIOPeiA's merit.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
gov.uk page text: "The 9 projects to be awarded funding from the Space Based Solar Power Innovation Competition are listed here." Named awards: Queen Mary University of London GBP960,607 (WPT phased array/rectenna); University of Bristol GBP353,398 (SCOPES electromagnetics tool); Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd GBP999,513 (CASSIE, with Queen's University Belfast and Imperial College London, CASSIOPeiA-design phased array test); University of Cambridge GBP770,666 (concentrator solar cells, with Southampton and IQE plc in Wales); MicroLink Devices UK Ltd GBP449,955 (concentrator PV); Imperial College London GBP295,194 (whole-energy-system integration study); EDF Energy R&D UK Centre Ltd GBP25,855 ("Space BEAM" grid-value study); Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd GBP424,989 (CASSIOPeiA Phase 0/A concept study, with Thales Alenia Space); Space Solar Engineering Ltd GBP1,198,802 (CASSiDI, CASSIOPeiA design iteration and HARRIER WPT test campaign). The GBP 5,478,979 total is summed here from the 9 published figures; gov.uk does not itself publish a grand total.
Basis: GBP, nominal (award values as published by gov.uk 2023-06-14 to 2024-04-17, not inflation-adjusted)
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-005 not published in this releaseQST-019 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0287
CLM-0287, Energy Aperture, as of 2024-04-17.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-297
- CLM-0515Nearly half of the grant money the UK government announced in 2023 and 2024 for its space-based solar power innovation competition was...CLM-0516Public money funded a real piece of hardware that was built and tested, not just another report -- a rare outcome in this field -- even...CLM-1429A search on 13 October 2026 found no published model of Britain's power system that is free to decide how much space solar power to build...