Pentagon's Power Play: Beaming Energy from Space to the Battlefield

ASHBURN, VA – May 06, 2026 – The U.S. Air Force is looking to the stars for its next energy solution, awarding a landmark contract to Virginia-based startup Overview Energy to explore how solar power collected in orbit can be beamed to military bases on Earth. The agreement marks a significant step toward solving one of the military's most persistent and dangerous challenges: providing resilient power to troops in remote and contested environments.

The contract, awarded through the Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Energy, and Environment (SAF/IE), tasks Overview Energy with defining how its space solar technology can secure power for Department of War operations, reducing a critical reliance on vulnerable fuel supply chains. This futuristic concept, once the domain of science fiction, is now a central pillar in the Pentagon's strategy for maintaining dominance in an era of renewed global competition.

A Strategic Shift in Energy Resilience

For the modern military, energy is a lifeline and a liability. The U.S. Department of Defense spends over $4 billion annually on energy for its fixed installations, much of it dependent on commercial grids susceptible to cyberattacks and physical disruption. In forward-deployed locations, the problem is more acute. Fuel convoys are frequent targets for adversaries, and the logistical effort to transport diesel and jet fuel to remote outposts is costly, complex, and dangerous.

Overview Energy's technology aims to sever this logistical tether. The company is developing a system of satellites in geosynchronous orbit, some 22,000 miles above Earth, that would capture uninterrupted sunlight 24/7. This energy would then be converted and beamed as a safe, invisible, near-infrared light to receivers on the ground. Crucially, these receivers can be existing utility-scale solar farms, minimizing the need for new infrastructure.

"We admire the Air Force's leadership in exploring new approaches to energy resilience," said Marc Berte, CEO of Overview Energy. "In many of these environments, energy is defined by how fuel can be delivered. Transforming that expands what the warfighter can do and how long they can operate."

The initial study will focus on high-stakes locations where fuel supply is a known vulnerability. This includes remote installations like Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, critical for Arctic operations, and the strategically vital Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, a key hub for power projection in the Pacific. In a conflict scenario, the ability to power these bases from space could be a decisive advantage, ensuring continuous operations for radar systems, airfields, and command centers without depending on tankers or trucks.

This initiative is part of a broader DoD push for energy resilience. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been actively pursuing space-based solar power (SBSP) through its Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR) project, a multi-year effort in partnership with defense giant Northrop Grumman. These projects underscore a strategic pivot toward developing what the military calls "logistically agile power" to support concepts like Agile Combat Employment (ACE), which relies on dispersing forces to unpredictable locations.

The Engineering of an Invisible Beam

The concept of collecting solar power in space is not new, but making it technically and economically viable has been a decades-long challenge. Overview Energy, founded in 2022, believes it is on the cusp of a breakthrough by leveraging recent advances in aerospace and renewable energy.

The company's choice of a near-infrared beam is a key differentiator. While other projects, including the AFRL's SSPIDR, have focused on converting sunlight to radio frequency (RF) microwaves, Overview's approach aims to deliver energy to existing photovoltaic panels. The company claims its system can deliver approximately five times more energy than a terrestrial solar installation of the same size because it is not limited by nighttime, weather, or atmospheric filtering of sunlight.

Safety and efficiency remain paramount concerns for any power-beaming technology. Overview Energy asserts its near-infrared beam is safe, and the firm has already achieved a significant milestone by demonstrating power beaming from a moving airborne platform, a crucial proof-of-concept for its future space-to-ground system. The company aims for its first energy transfer from low-Earth orbit by early 2028.

However, significant hurdles remain. The cost of launching large solar collection arrays into geosynchronous orbit is substantial, and the efficiency of converting, transmitting, and receiving the beamed energy must be high enough to be practical. The technology must also prove its reliability and resilience against potential jamming or physical threats in the increasingly contested domain of space.

From Battlefields to Big Tech

While the Pentagon's interest provides a critical catalyst, the long-term viability of space solar power may hinge on its commercial applications. Here, Overview Energy has already made significant inroads, highlighting the dual-use potential of its technology.

The company recently announced a capacity reservation agreement with Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to provide up to 1 gigawatt of power for its energy-hungry data centers, with deliveries slated to begin in 2030. This partnership with a commercial titan signals strong market confidence and provides a clear path to scaling the technology beyond niche defense applications. Data centers, like military bases, require massive amounts of continuous, reliable power, making them an ideal customer for an energy source that never sleeps.

This dual-use strategy, serving both national security and commercial markets, could create a virtuous cycle. Government investment de-risks the technology for private investors, while commercial demand drives down costs through mass production, ultimately making the system more affordable for military use.

Overview Energy is not alone in this new space race. Researchers at Caltech are advancing their own Space Solar Power Project, and international competitors, particularly Japan and China, have ambitious national programs aiming to build orbital power stations. The U.S. Space Force is also testing new lightweight solar arrays and partnering with academia on next-generation power technologies. This global competition is accelerating innovation across the board, from more efficient solar cells to cheaper launch services, bringing the prospect of space-based power closer to reality. For the U.S. military, winning this race could mean securing not just the high ground of space, but a perpetual source of power for its operations on Earth.