Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential ecological impacts of the Space Based Solar Power Innovation Competition.

Before launching the space-based solar power innovation competition, the Government funded the Frazer-Nash consultancy to produce an independent report looking at the feasibility of the technology, including the potential environmental and safety impacts. The report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/space-based-solar-power-de-risking-the-pathway-to-net-zero. The main ecological impacts identified were related to the large potential size of the ground receiving station and the innovation competition is looking at developing concepts that will minimise these issues.