Project Elara
Building an affordable space-based energy future
And doing it for people, not profit.
Our mission
Space-based solar power is a technology that could transform our society. By capturing sunlight in space and sending it back to Earth, it offers an energy source that is near-limitless, reliably available 24 hours a day, and accessible to even the most far-flung parts of the world. On a large enough scale, space-based solar power can single-handedly power the world.
At Project Elara, our goal is to develop space-based solar technologies in a responsible, ethical way that makes the technology accessible to everyone. We are a 100% open-source organization that shares our software, hardware, research, and knowledge openly so that this work can benefit the public and remain useful for future generations.
Our design concept
Our design for a fully open-source space-based solar power system is composed of several components:
Collect sunlight in orbit
Giant mirrors in geostationary orbit focus and concentrate sunlight onto a transmitter.
Transmit clean energy
The transmitter uses the concentrated solar energy to power a microwave laser and send energy to Earth.
Receive power on Earth
An Earth-based receiving array captures the microwave beam and converts it back to electricity.
View diagram of our system
Benefits of space-based solar power
Availability and equity
Transmission from space could send power to virtually any place on Earth, including warzones, disaster zones, remote regions, and communities without reliable power infrastructure.
Power output
The Sun is a true nuclear furnace. Space-based solar power makes use of its plentiful 24-hour sunlight and could provide near-limitless clean energy.
24-hour reliability
Thanks to the excellent transmission characteristics of microwaves, space-based solar power can operate at night and even in poor weather conditions.
Technology transfer
Space-based solar research can support progress in other fields, including solar-sail propulsion, inertial confinement fusion, and precision interferometry experiments for gravitational waves.
Our dedication to future generations
Our development of space-based solar technologies is not for the purpose of earning a profit. Instead, our goal is to pass on a better world for future generations to live in.
We will share our technology and knowledge as open-source work, preserve and archive it carefully, and carry it forward for the scientists and engineers who come after us. You can learn more about our licensing and public-domain commitments on our license page.
Learn more and contribute
If you would like to learn more about our work and mission, read the Project Elara Handbook, visit our Codeberg repositories, or see how to contribute to Project Elara.
We welcome contributions and would be glad for others to join us.
Based on the original Project Elara introductory poster. Poster design by Jacky Song. Icons in the original poster were public-domain icons from Andrej Pancik's icon set.