Value chain · CLM-1172
In plain terms
A 2025 UK government study tried two places for the receiving station, Aberdeen and southern England near London. Southern England came out better, because the grid there can take the power almost all the time while Aberdeen's connections would lose a quarter of it.
The claim as recorded
The 2025 UK feasibility study of small-scale space-based solar power models its rectenna as sited "in Aberdeen or in the south of England, near London" and finds the southern site worth more: power there "can be utilised 99% of the time", while a rectenna in Aberdeen "is subject to transmission constraints", using only 75 per cent of its potential, for a benefit (Scenario 3, 52 MW from a NOAK system in 2040) of GBP 22.8 million a year in the south against GBP 12.9 million at Aberdeen. The study states that at the planning stage "the location of the rectenna in the UK is flexible".
Evidence behind this: T4-an advocate-adjacent, government-funded feasibility study's energy-system model inputs, read in the held text layer.
Scope and limits
MODEL INPUTS, NOT A SITING STUDY: the two locations are inputs to an energy-system model, with no coordinates, no site survey and no land or sea criterion; "the south of England, near London" is a region, not a place. The system studied is small-scale and on the study's own orbits, not the 2 GW UK reference system, so the UK reference footprint (CLM-0003) does not follow from it. Scenario 4 (104 MW, dawn/dusk) gives GBP 8.2 million at Aberdeen against GBP 22.8 million in the south (PDF 42). Advocate-adjacent source (T4, ADV in sources.md).
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF p.40, NORM: "Scenario 3 (maximum utilisation) with a rectenna sited in Aberdeen or in the south of England, near London." and "million per year if the rectenna is sited in Aberdeen" (GBP 12.9) and "million per year if the rectenna is sited in the south of England" (GBP 22.8). PDF p.42, NORM: "Power from a rectenna in the south can be utilised 99% of the time, whereas use of a rectenna in Aberdeen is subject to transmission constraints, utilising only 75% of its potential." PDF p.26, NORM: "At the planning stage, the location of the rectenna in the UK is flexible." PDF p.4, NORM: "A rectenna in the south of England provides significantly more benefit than a rectenna in Scotland due to grid constraints." Spans probed against extract/derived/SRC-076/text/ 2026-09-24; the pound sign is written GBP outside the quotation marks.
Basis: named locations; GBP million per year; per cent of potential output used
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1172
CLM-1172, Energy Aperture, as of 2025.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-076
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- Cited in articles