Value chain · CLM-1276
In plain terms
In 2021 Caltech said a private donor and his wife had given it more than 100 million US dollars since 2013 to set up its space solar power project. The donors would not make money from it. The first test in space was planned for early 2023.
The claim as recorded
Caltech announced on 2021-08-03 that a philanthropic donor, the chairman of a US property company and a life member of Caltech's Board of Trustees, giving with his wife, also a Caltech trustee, "donated over $100 million to form the Space-based Solar Power Project (SSPP)"; that "The donation was made anonymously in 2013", the first donation coming that year through the donor's family foundation when the research began; that the donors "will not benefit financially from any technology that is created"; and that "The project's first test, which will occur in early 2023" would launch prototypes of the solar power generators and RF wireless power transfer, with "a deployable structure measuring roughly 6 feet by 6 feet".
Evidence behind this: T5: the receiving institution's own news release about a gift to it; the amounts and dates are as it states them.
Scope and limits
The receiving institution's own announcement. It gives no schedule, conditions or year-by-year amounts, and the more than USD 100 million is cumulative from 2013 to 2021, not an annual budget. The release dates from August 2021, so its 2023 test date is a plan as of then, not a result; what the 2023 flight did is a separate question (CLM-0513). The donors' stated motive is reported by the institution and is not recorded here. The print has no text layer; quotations are checked against a transcription made from the renders, which is the basis of the quotation budget (4,856 characters, 294 quoted). DN-19: the donors and staff are named on the page; this record gives roles only.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
Transcription body (from PDF p.1-3 at the render): the five quoted spans in the claim appear verbatim, the first and second on PDF p.1 and the third, fourth and fifth on PDF p.2. PDF p.1 also gives the 2013 first donation "through" the donor's foundation, named on the page; p.3 says the gift funded doctoral students on a five-year commitment.
Basis: USD, nominal, cumulative gift "over" 100 million as stated; no breakdown by year
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-027 not published in this releaseQST-030 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1276
CLM-1276, Energy Aperture, as of 2021-08-03.