Renewable Energy and Space. These three words cause quite a combination don’t they? What does renewable energy mean? What does Space encompass? At first it is better to restrict space to our solar system. This article, first of a few, argues that there is nothing technologically stopping us from putting up renewable energy power plants in neighbouring planets such as Mars. However, it might not be cost effective. Why would we want to though? There are rational reasons and irrational reasons. Irrational reasons such as, “Because it was there” to quote Edmund Hillary. Rational reasons such as to kick start space economies and mining external planets.

Space and renewable energy isn’t something very new. Solar panels have been used in space explorations for decades now. Even as this is being written, robots powered by solar panels are being used to explore Mars.

Renewable energy, the way we understand it, has a few different sectors and quite a few technologies involved in it. There are natural renewable energy technologies based on geo-physical features of our planet. Some of these can be extended to other planets and some not. Currently, on Earth, these are solar power systems, wind power system, water based power systems such as hydropower, wave power, ‘run-of-river’ systems. These are different from clean technologies such as bio-power, hydrogen fuels. Out of this brief list of technologies, solar and wind power technologies are mature, they have industries which have the capacity to produce power plant sized outputs.

In terms of technology based on current day definitions of science and technology, there is nothing technologically to stop us from building renewable energy power generation systems such as wind power systems, solar power or geothermal systems. Robots can be programmed to install such power plants. However it may not be economically feasible. If though, the planet being farmed, i.e. being used to generate electricity to perform economically useful work, then the system is economically feasible if the costs of production (including transportation) are less than the cost of reselling that planets atomic chart similarities in Earth’s commodities markets.

Solar power plants can be deployed into neighbouring planets, wind power plants can be deployed pretty much anywhere. Geothermal technologies once fully developed can be used as well. In terms of cost effectiveness of deployment of power plant sized systems into neighbouring planets, it would be far more cost effective to transport solar panels and geo-thermal technologies than the massive wind turbines which are in deployment right now.

Already the private sector has entered the space economies, which were previously the reserve of nation states. In terms of actual transportation of these power plants, it is important to remember that right now we are only in 2011, i.e. the first decade of a century which has seen exponentially increasing knowledge and innovation. Competitive pressures and profit maximising behaviour of the private sector, coupled with this rapid growth in knowledge bases and innovation rates make the likelihood of a breakthrough in space transportation very high.