Turning space sunlight into 24/7 clean power on Earth.
The modern power grid is being pulled in every direction at once. Solar and wind are now the cheapest new sources of electricity, but they provide power only when the weather allows. Transmission lines are overloaded, new projects wait years in interconnection queues, and demand from data centers, cities, and critical facilities is rising faster than new infrastructure can be built. Batteries help, but covering every dark, windless hour with storage would require enormous land, materials, and capital. The world needs a way to generate and move clean energy instantly to the place where it is needed the most.
Overview Energy is building that missing layer: satellites in geosynchronous orbit that collect uninterrupted sunlight and beam it down as safe, invisible near-infrared light to utility-scale solar projects on Earth. Those projects become receivers, able to generate power day or night, turning intermittent solar into reliable, round-the-clock power. Instead of constructing new power plants and carving new transmission corridors, Overview connects constant sunlight in space to the real-time needs of Earth’s grid.
The company’s architecture is a clear break from legacy space solar energy concepts. Earlier ideas focused on microwaves or orbital mirrors, approaches that demand massive structures, dedicated receiver sites, and uncomfortable safety and regulatory tradeoffs. Overview instead uses a wide, low-intensity near-infrared beam that never exceeds the intensity of the sun, operating at wavelengths already proven in fiber-optic networks, medical imaging, and security cameras. That choice makes the system efficient and inherently safe for people, wildlife, aircraft, and other spacecraft, while keeping satellite design at scales the industry already knows how to build and launch.
From about 36,000 kilometers above Earth, each Overview satellite cluster will sit in continuous sunlight, converting that power into a beam a few kilometers across. On the ground, that beam falls onto standard photovoltaic panels at solar farms—no exotic receivers, no new land—where it is converted back into electricity.
Because the satellites are in geosynchronous orbit, they can steer the beam nearly instantaneously anywhere within their field of view, allowing a constellation to “follow the night” and serve different regions in sequence as demand shifts. This directability changes what a power plant can be. Overview is designing its system so orbital assets can dynamically shift power delivery based on grid conditions, strengthening reliability and serving energy-intensive users like AI data centers, industrial loads, and large bases. “Imagine sunlight collected 36,000 kilometers above Earth, then arriving as clean energy wherever the grid needs it,” says CEO Marc Berte. “Space solar energy will only matter when it powers real demand on Earth, and we’re designing for that scale from day one.”
Under the hood, Overview has treated space solar energy as a constrained engineering problem rather than a science experiment. The system is designed to clear five gates at once: safety, fundability, cost, land use, and resilience. Transmission must be inherently safe; first megawatts must be delivered at total system costs investors can underwrite; energy must be competitive with other firm, low-carbon sources; land use must undercut solar-plus-storage alone; and the architecture must avoid single points of failure through distributed satellites and receivers. That systems mindset shows up in choices like commercially available lasers and optics, and a roadmap built around mass manufacturing and repeatable launch.
Overview’s progress follows a pragmatic “lab to aircraft to orbit” path. The team first validated its laser and optics chain at thousands of watts on the ground. They then achieved a world-first milestone by transmitting power from a moving aircraft to a ground receiver 5 kilometers below, using their space-ready optics and laser chain. The airborne test validated the power-beaming system in motion and in real atmosphere, retiring a key risk for orbital operations.
The company was founded in 2022 by a team that spans energy, aerospace, and software. Marc Berte brings deep experience in space hardware and high-power systems from roles at Vast Space, Raytheon, and energy and wireless-power startups. Andrew Cantino, Co-Founder, brings a background in physics and large-scale software systems, most recently working on commercial space station programs. Around them, Overview has assembled leaders who have built and launched satellite constellations, stood up manufacturing lines, and navigated global space regulation, alongside advisors from NASA, advanced manufacturing, and public policy.
The commercial opportunity matches the scale of the problem. By turning existing solar farms into 24/7 assets and bypassing some of the hardest grid bottlenecks, Overview’s system can help utilities reduce reliance on fossil peaker plants, give data centers access to large clean capacity on faster timelines, and let developers earn revenue during the majority of hours when their projects currently sit idle. Over time, satellite clusters could serve multiple continents, delivering gigawatt-scale clean power where it’s needed most without building new long-distance transmission across contested landscapes.
If Overview succeeds, space solar energy becomes a key pillar to meet our rising energy demands, unlocking low-cost, firm, clean power that can be steered to the places with the highest demand and the highest stakes—keeping critical systems online, cutting industry emissions, and supporting a resilient, electrified economy.