Chinese scientist reveals military uses of space solar power project

Monday 06 April 2026 - 17:10

By: Dakir Madiha

Chinese scientist reveals military uses of space solar power project

A senior Chinese scientist involved in Beijing's ambitious space-based solar energy program has published a paper detailing how the technology could be adapted for military operations, including surveillance, electronic warfare, and communications control, offering a rare public acknowledgment of the dual-use potential of one of China's most prominent energy megaprojects.

Duan Baoyan, chief architect of China's "Zhuri" space solar energy initiative and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, outlined the military applications in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientia Sinica Informationis, as reported by the South China Morning Post. According to the paper, his team has modified the design of the planned orbital solar power infrastructure to support functions including communication, navigation, reconnaissance, jamming, and remote control.

Duan, a professor of electromechanical engineering at Xidian University in Xi'an, stressed the need for highly precise and steerable narrow microwave beams to transmit energy from orbit to ground over long distances. While that capability is primarily intended to improve the efficiency and accuracy of wireless power transmission, it could also enable targeted signal delivery for military communications or disruption. The South China Morning Post described the paper as offering a rare glimpse into how energy beamed from orbit could also support surveillance and electronic warfare.

The Zhuri project, whose name means "chasing the sun," envisions placing a solar array roughly one kilometer wide in geostationary orbit some 36,000 kilometers above Earth, where sunlight is available almost continuously without interference from weather or day-night cycles. China plans to launch a low-Earth orbit test satellite generating 10 kilowatts in 2028 to test microwave energy transmission, with a one-megawatt station planned in geostationary orbit by 2030 and a full-scale commercial system of two gigawatts targeted for 2050. Veteran space engineer Long Lehao compared the project to relocating the Three Gorges Dam to geostationary orbit, underlining its scale. Harvested energy would be beamed to ground-based antennas and converted back into electricity for the power grid.

The disclosure comes amid intensifying U.S.-China space competition, with American military officials warning that Beijing is investing in anti-satellite capabilities ranging from electronic warfare and directed-energy weapons to satellite jamming. A January 2026 study by India's Centre for Joint Warfare Studies had already flagged the potential military advantages of space solar power, including supplying remote military bases, extending drone endurance, and enabling directed-energy weapon attacks from orbit. Duan's paper now provides a direct acknowledgment from within China that the technology is being designed with such applications in mind.