EEVblog 1637: Solar Freakin' Space Mirrors! - Reflect Orbital DEBUNKED

Reflect Orbital wants to put reflecting mirrors in space to sell sunlight to solar farms after dark. The numbers work out exactly as you expect them to. It's Solar Freakin' Space Mirror time!

https://www.reflectorbital.com/
BenNBuilds balloon test video:    • Reflect Orbital Airborne Demo  
First Principles interview with Ben Nowack:    • Selling Sunlight to Solar Farms After...  
S3 Interview video with Reflect Orbital:    • They're Making Solar Panels... Work a...  
S3 2nd interview with Ben Nowack & Tristan Semmelhack :    • The ex SpaceX & Zipline engineers bui...  
Space.com article: https://www.space.com/orbiting-mirror...
ClimateCapital investment: https://www.climatecapital.co/portfolio
Understanding the Duck Curve: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/65...
Real time US energy price tracker: https://www.iea.org/data-and-statisti...

Forum: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/ee...

00:00 - Reflect Orbital, Sunlight After Dark
01:18 - Ben Nowack from BenNBuilds Youtube channel & the balloon test
02:55 - Sun synchronous polar orbit reflecting mirror satellites
03:54 - A look at the website claims, a 5km sunlight spot for 4 minutes
05:58 - This isn't new, the Russians did it with the Znamya 2, albeit unintentionally
06:56 - Who's behind Reflect Orbital?
08:12 - What is the Duck Curve?
09:31 - CLAIM: A 10m x 10m satellite mylar reflector into a 12U Cubesat
10:09 - CLAIM: 10's to 100's if BILLIONS of dollar per year revenue!
10:35 - CLAIM: $50/MWh energy sale price after dark
11:18 - CLAIM: $175k/year revenue from each satellite & launch costs
11:58 - CLAIM: 200W/sqm? Err, in what universe?
12:24 - DaveCAD calculations
13:10 - 100kW maximum capture is reduced by the tilt angle
14:05 - 5mW/sqm. FIVE MILLIWATTS! Is this a JOKE?
14:50 - But WAIT, what if you combine and focus all the satellites?
16:02 - It gets WORSE! Capacity Factor is a problem.
18:14 - 20MWh/year WOW!, that's a lot, right? Right?
19:22 - Even 20MWh/year become ZERO if it consumes more than it produces!
20:09 - How did nobody do a back-of-the-envelope calculation?

If you find my videos useful you may consider supporting the EEVblog on Patreon:   / eevblog  
Or with crypto:
BTC: 33BsprBQNBtHuVzVwDmqWkpDjYnCouwASM
ETH: 0x68114e40ff4dcdd384750500501e20acf3875f8c
BCH: 35n9KBPw9T7M3NGzpS3t4nUYEf9HbRmkm4
USDC: 0x68114e40ff4dcdd384750500501e20acf3875f8c
LTC: MJfK57ujxy55su4XicVGQc9wcEJf6mAoXF
Web Site: http://www.eevblog.com
Store: https://eevblog.store/

Other channels:
EEVblog2:    / eevblog2  
EEVdiscover:    / eevdiscover  

T-Shirts: http://teespring.com/stores/eevblog
#ElectronicsCreators #debunking #solar