Newly announced UK space tech funding could help cut carbon emissions, improve energy security, and enhance the country’s reputation as a science superpower.

Announced by Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, the £3 million grant will be made available for innovative solar power and weather monitoring technology.

Space-based solar power (SBSP) projects collect the Sun’s energy using solar panels orbiting the Earth and can deliver clean energy, day, and night, unaffected by the weather.

The technology has the potential to boost energy security by providing reliable, affordable alternative to expensive and volatile fossil fuels, while reducing the UK’s contributions to climate change.

Grant funding will also be made available for weather monitoring sensors to aid more accurate weather forecasts. The sensors will be put into orbit for the first time, thanks to a partnership with data and analytics company Spire Global.

Developed by the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s RAL Space, the Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder (HYMS) will help global meteorological agencies and businesses around the world involved with planning, shipping and flood warnings. It is four times more powerful than the sensors used on existing satellites.

The UK has hit the milestone of 40 degrees centigrade in temperature in several parts of the country for the first time in history, indicating a need for more accurate and timely warning of weather, particularly as the climate begins to change.

Kwarteng said: “Space-based solar power could provide an affordable, clean and reliable source of energy for the whole world to benefit from, helping the move away from expensive fossil fuels. Today’s investment is an exciting example of how we can go even further in our ambitions to make the UK a science superpower.

“I am also delighted that the HYMS technology, developed in Oxfordshire, will be put into service by Spire Global to help improve weather forecasting.

“These projects are major milestones for our National Space Strategy, developing the UK’s space capabilities while boosting the economy and delivering high-skill jobs.”

An independent report has found significant commercial potential in developing SBSP’s underlying technologies as products in their own right – particularly with regards to wireless power transmission and solar power.

Similarly, the HYMS occupies a footprint fifty times smaller than current technology, which makes it possible to launch dozens of HYMS-equipped satellites, together forming a constellation that can track fast moving extreme weather events such as hurricanes.

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Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “Satellite technology is helping us solve some of the most significant challenges we face. We’re working with the space sector to drive innovation, catalyse investment and bring tangible benefits to people and businesses across the UK.

“As these two new projects show, space is not only vital in helping us monitor the weather and our environment, it can also provide new solutions to our future energy needs and support the global fight against climate change.”

The UK space sector employs around 47,000 people directly around the UK and supports around 190,000 jobs in the supply chain.

Work on the announced projects will be carried out both in Oxfordshire, at RAL Space, and in Glasgow where Spire Global has its UK headquarters and satellite manufacturing facility.

The space industry supported 8,440 jobs in Scotland in 2020, almost a fifth of the total 46,995 jobs in the space industry across the whole of the UK. Scotland will also host the UK’s first vertical small satellite launches next year, from the SaxaVord and Sutherland spaceports.

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