Solar panel in space is collecting energy that could one day be beamed to anywhere on Earth

Scientists working for the Pentagon have successfully tested a solar panel the size of a pizza box in space, designed as a prototype for a future system to send electricity from space back to any point on Earth, CNN reported.

The panel -- known as a Photovoltaic Radiofrequency Antenna Module (PRAM) -- was first launched in May 2020, attached to the Pentagon's X-37B unmanned drone, to harness light from the sun to covert to electricity. The drone is looping Earth every 90 minutes.

The panel is designed to make best use of the light in space, which doesn't pass through the atmosphere, and so retains the energy of blue waves, making it more powerful than the sunlight that reaches Earth. Blue light diffuses on entry into the atmosphere, which is why the sky appears blue.

"We're getting a ton of extra sunlight in space just because of that," said Paul Jaffe, a co-developer of the project.

The latest experiments show that the 12x12-inch panel is capable of producing about 10 watts of energy for transmission, Jaffe told CNN. That's about enough to power a tablet computer.

But the project envisages an array of dozens of panels and, if scaled up, its success could revolutionize both how power is generated and distributed to remote corners of the globe. It could contribute to the Earth's largest grid networks, Jaffe said.

"Some visions have space solar matching or exceeding the largest power plants today -- multiple gigawatts -- so enough for a city," he said.

The unit has yet to actually send power directly back to Earth, but that technology has already been proven. If the project develops into huge kilometers-wide space solar antennae, it could beam microwaves that would then be converted into fuel-free electricity to any part of the planet at a moment's notice.

"The unique advantage the solar power satellites have over any other source of power is this global transmissibility," Jaffe said. "You can send power to Chicago and a fraction of a second later, if you needed, send it instead to London or Brasilia."