What if your rooftop solar panels could keep working long after the sun goes down? A wave of bold startups is now chasing that exact idea, and this week, the conversation got louder. Companies like Overview Energy and Aetherflux are pitching plans to collect sunlight in orbit and beam it down to Earth around the clock, promising to solve one of clean energy’s biggest headaches: the night.
How Space Solar Power Actually Works
The basic concept is surprisingly straightforward.
Overview Energy plans to use wide-beam near-infrared lasers to continuously deliver power from satellites in geosynchronous orbit, about 22,000 miles above Earth, to existing solar farms.1 Using infrared laser beams, the satellites would transfer energy down to existing solar panels on Earth, unlike other space-based solar power concepts that require brand new ground infrastructure.2
Aetherflux, on the other hand, plans to build a constellation of satellites that collect solar energy via solar panels, distributing the energy back to ground stations through infrared lasers. The approach differs from those explored by governments and universities, calling for transmission via infrared lasers instead of microwaves.3
Here is a simplified breakdown of how the system would function:
- Step 1: Large solar arrays in orbit collect uninterrupted sunlight 24 hours a day.
- Step 2: Onboard electronics convert that solar energy into infrared laser beams or microwaves.
- Step 3: The energy is beamed down to ground receivers or existing solar farms.
- Step 4: Ground stations convert the incoming beam back into electricity for the grid.
Space has several major advantages over Earth’s surface for collecting solar power. It is always solar noon in space and full sun. Collecting surfaces receive much more intense sunlight, owing to the lack of clouds, dust, and weather. The intensity in orbit is roughly 144% of the maximum on Earth’s surface.4
space-based solar power satellite beaming energy to earth at night
The Startups Leading the Charge
Two U.S. companies have emerged as the loudest voices in this space.
Overview Energy, a Northern Virginia-based startup, has raised $20 million to try transmitting solar power from satellites down to solar panels on Earth.1 In late November 2025, a Cessna turboprop flying at an altitude of 5,000 meters performed a world-first demonstration, flying over Pennsylvania and wirelessly beaming power down to receivers on the ground. The flight test marked the first time a moving aircraft has beamed power down to Earth.2
Overview Energy CEO Marc Berte called it a landmark moment. He said it was “the first optical power beaming from a moving platform at any substantial range or power” and “the first time anyone’s really done a power beaming thing where it’s all of the functional pieces all working together.”2
Overview says that in 2028 it intends to launch a satellite into low Earth orbit, far below where it ultimately plans to operate. If all goes as planned, it will start sending megawatts of power from geosynchronous orbit in 2030.5
Then there is Aetherflux, which has taken a slightly different path. Founded by Baiju Bhatt, the billionaire co-founder of Robinhood, Aetherflux raised $50 million in a Series A round as it works to launch its first low Earth orbit demonstration in 2026.6 The round brings total funding to $60 million, with backing from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz.6
Aetherflux’s first spacecraft will launch aboard a SpaceX Transporter mission scheduled for 2026. Once in orbit, it will beam power using an infrared laser with a spot size of 10 meters.7
| Feature | Overview Energy | Aetherflux |
|---|---|---|
| Funding Raised | $20 million | $60 million |
| Beam Type | Infrared laser | Infrared laser |
| Target Orbit | Geosynchronous (22,000 miles) | Low Earth Orbit (constellation) |
| Ground Receiver | Existing solar farms | Dedicated ground stations |
| First Orbital Test | Planned for 2028 | Planned for 2026 |
Real Milestones Behind the Hype
This is not just startup talk. Real hardware has been tested.
Caltech’s Space Solar Power Project demonstrated wireless power transmission from space in 2023, when its Space Solar Power Demonstrator-1 satellite achieved a major milestone. Launched in January 2023, the satellite demonstrated its ability to beam detectable power to Earth on May 22, 2023.8
DARPA’s POWER program achieved a breakthrough in June 2025, successfully beaming over 800 watts of laser power across 5.3 miles, more than triple the power and five times the distance of previous tests.8
StarCatcher Industries also hit a major milestone after transmitting 1.1 kilowatts of laser power wirelessly to commercial solar panels at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in November 2025. It remains the highest output among publicly disclosed wireless power transmission experiments to date.8
And the race is global. Japan plans to launch a satellite called OHISAMA, no bigger than a washing machine, later in 2026. Once operational, it will transmit energy wirelessly to a 13-antenna receiving station in Suwa, central Japan.9 The Japanese government sees this technology as an important part of its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.10
The Hurdles That Could Stall Everything
For all the excitement, experts urge caution. The gap between a lab demo and a working power grid in orbit is enormous.
Cost remains the biggest concern. A 2021 NASA study said that space solar power could be ten times more costly than terrestrial renewable energy generation. High costs come from launch, construction, maintenance, and energy losses.11
Safety and public trust are also question marks. A major concern for any wireless power transmission system is safety. Beams must be tightly controlled to prevent collateral damage to aircraft and birds. Convincing the public about the safety of energy beams from space and ensuring the laser system’s efficiency will be critical.12
Overview is not just confronting promising but potentially unforgiving physics problems but will also be battling grid-scale batteries, which are getting cheaper every year, and potentially nuclear fusion.5
There is also the challenge of scale. The eventual size of a commercially relevant space solar array might be around 3.5 square miles, with similarly massive receiver arrays down on Earth to capture the transmitted energy.13 Building and maintaining structures of that size in orbit would push the limits of current space engineering.
Key question for investors and policymakers: Can space solar beat the plummeting cost of batteries and onshore renewables before it becomes obsolete?
What This Means for the Future of Clean Energy
Terrestrial solar farms are at the mercy of weather and the day-night cycle, whereas space-based solar power provides consistent, reliable baseload power. The intensity of sunlight in space is also significantly higher, meaning space-based panels generate far more energy per square meter than their counterparts on the ground.14
If these startups can deliver even a fraction of what they promise, the payoff is massive. Remote islands that burn diesel for electricity. Military bases in hostile terrain. Hospitals during natural disasters. All could benefit from a power source that never sleeps.
Experts project orbital demos from 2026 to 2030 could precede gigawatt-scale deployment by 2035, enabled by dramatically lower launch costs.15 But nothing is guaranteed. The coming 18 to 24 months will reveal whether these companies can move past flashy demos toward real grid power.
The dream of powering the night from space is no longer science fiction. It is engineering, funding rounds, and satellite buses on factory floors. Whether these startups succeed or stumble, they have already reignited a conversation the world needs to have: how do we keep the lights on when the sun goes down, without burning fossil fuels to do it? Drop your thoughts in the comments below and share this story with anyone who cares about the future of energy.
