A Generic Three-Dimensional Model for Solar Energy Reflected from Mirrors in Circular Orbits

Orbiting solar reflectors may be a useful assets to illuminate solar power farms to enhance their utility when direct sunlight is not available. The assessment of their feasibility for a variety of applications requires accurate calculations of how much solar energy can be delivered from a variety of orbits. This paper presents a generic, three-dimensional semi-analytical model that outputs the quantity of solar energy for a given circular orbit and solar power farm position at the beginning of a pass. The model extends previous studies by including new phenomena such as the Earth's oblateness, rotation, shadow on the reflector and orbit around the Sun, in addition to time -dependent geometric and atmospheric losses. These additions provide new analytical insights into the delivery of reflected solar energy delivery and demonstrate the importance of high-fidelity modelling. The strengths of the model are illustrated for a 1000 km altitude Sun -synchronous orbit throughout, as well as a range of other orbits and solar power farms located at different latitudes and longitudes.(c) 2023 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).