Value chain · CLM-0833
In plain terms
This 2022 life-cycle study spells out exactly what it counted: the UK Space Energy Initiative's whole 2022-2080 roadmap, from early prototypes through to 25 full-size 2-gigawatt satellites, including their rockets, ground control and the receiving antennas on Earth, with each full-size satellite assumed to operate for about thirty years.
The claim as recorded
SRC-016 states its functional unit as "The SEI technology roadmap in fulfillment of its requirements" and models a cradle-to-grave boundary from Phase 0/A to Phase F across space, launch and ground segments plus rectenna infrastructure over 2022-2080, comprising 5 stratospheric SPS prototypes, 5 LEO SPS prototypes and 25 full-scale CASSIOPeiA systems each rated at 2 GW delivered directly to grid, each modelled at 2.45 GHz with a 4-sun CPV variant in GEO for an average lifetime of thirty years.
Scope and limits
The rectenna is a proxy: because "the SEI technical working group had not yet finalized a design", and the only rectenna data to hand were for the outdated NASA/DOE SPS Reference System, the authors used a conservative proxy design in their place (p.4), and the abstract says rectenna manufacturing and production rested mainly on estimates and extrapolations (p.1); rectenna results carry that proxy's assumptions rather than a CASSIOPeiA rectenna's. The paper itself flags on p.5 that launcher and launch-event counts "may have been under-estimated", arising from "a small discretion which was noticed relating to the total mass of each CASSIOPeiA system and the total payload capacity of a standard SpaceX Starship to GEO", and states the original figures "have been used in this analysis regardless". As of the 2022 paper, the final SPS concept for the SEI programme "has not yet been decided by the SEI", with CASSIOPeiA "used within this study as an example only" (p.2), so this may not be cited as the UK's selected architecture.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
p.3, stated functional unit with the quotation marks present in the source: "The SEI technology roadmap in fulfillment of its requirements". p.1 Abstract: "relevant for five stratospheric SPS prototypes, five low Earth orbit (LEO) SPS prototypes and twenty-five full-scale CASSIOPeiA systems which are capable of generating 2 gigawatts (GW) of power each and delivering this directly to the grid. Each CASSIOPeiA system has been modelled on the assumption that it will operate at 2.45 gigahertz (GHz) with 4-sun CPV variant in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) for an average lifetime of thirty years."
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-008 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-0833
CLM-0833, Energy Aperture, as of 2022.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-016
- CLM-0184This study's headline carbon-per-kWh figure for a UK space solar power programme leaves out the possible climate effect of soot and...CLM-0185In a 2022 life-cycle study commissioned by the UK Space Energy Initiative, the lightweight CASSIOPeiA design it used as an example for the...CLM-0832A UK-commissioned study modelled the whole planned 2022-2080 fleet of space solar power satellites and found that, spread across all the...CLM-0834The authors say their model does not count the soot and aluminium oxide that rockets release into the upper atmosphere, because the science...CLM-0835In a 2022 study, the research team compared its estimated carbon footprint per unit of electricity for a planned UK Space Energy Initiative...CLM-0836A 2022 life-cycle study set its estimate of 23.6 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour for the UK Space Energy Initiative's...CLM-0837Although the study's headline number is about carbon, its own results show ozone damage is the far bigger relative problem, at about 32 per...CLM-0838The authors of a 2022 life-cycle study of the UK Space Energy Initiative's planned space solar power programme said that, if the whole...More on the source page.