Environmental Impact of Space Solar Power

Sustainable energy in a variety of forms has been gaining increased attention in recent years, largely due to the consequences of anthropogenic climate change. While these energy sources provide a cleaner path forward for energy generation, it is crucial to understand their environmental impacts. A life cycle analysis (LCA) provides this information through a process standardized via ISO 4040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006. This facilitates comparing the impacts of
competing energy sources.

Space solar power (SSP) is a lesser-known sustainable energy source despite having been proposed decades ago. While specific proposals for SSP will not be discussed in this paper, important impact areas with distinct consequences are highlighted. This paper highlights areas in which SSP will create environmental impacts throughout its life cycle, from material extraction to decommissioning, and provides an overview of SSP and the LCA methodology. In doing so, it
creates the groundwork for future LCAs on SSP systems.

Each stage of the life cycle is discussed, identifying specific environmental impacts and potential areas of improvement. Questions are highlighted that must be answered to conduct a thorough analysis of the system, as well as a handful of high-level questions that can provide a first-order approximation. Furthermore, various metrics and indicators of these impacts are featured along with areas that necessitate more research. These metrics, in particular for space-based components, help to standardize space-related LCAs and enable comparisons with non-space systems. While materials and processes may evolve before these systems are built, current processes place an upper bound on negative impacts.