SRC-297

Space Based Solar Power Innovation Competition: details of organisations awarded funding - GOV.UK, updated 2024-04-17 (orig. published 2023-06-14).

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-0287 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.
• CLM-0515 Nearly half of the grant money the UK government announced in 2023 and 2024 for its space-based solar power innovation competition was awarded to three projects named after the CASSIOPeiA design; none of the other six awards was tied to a named satellite design.
• CLM-0516 Public money funded a real piece of hardware that was built and tested, not just another report -- a rare outcome in this field -- even though what it found was not entirely flattering to the design.
• CLM-1429 A 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. One British government study valued small space solar plants in a model by scaling down a much larger assumed plant; the only free-choice model found covers the whole of Europe.

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