Could solar panels in space be the energy source of the future?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As new research looks at the financial and environmental case for solar panels in space, we explore how likely the technology could be to power our future energy needs back on Earth.

Marnie Chesterton hears from the author of a new study into the topic, Dr Wei He from King’s College London, and is joined by Professor Henry Snaith from Oxford University to look at the future of solar panel technology.

We also hear from conservation scientist Adam Hart about his views on whether allowing trophy hunting could actually help to protect threatened species in the long term.

Marnie also speaks to the author of one of the books shortlisted for the annual Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, Simon Parkin. His book, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, explores the story of the botanists working at the world’s first seed bank during World War Two, and the extraordinary lengths they went to to protect the specimens they were keeping. We also hear from one of the judges of the awards, the crime writer Val McDermid.

And science journalist Caroline Steel joins us to highlights the week’s most fascinating new pieces of research.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:05.6	Your time starts now.
0:07.2	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
0:09.4	Absolutely right.
0:11.5	So, you might like to know that the BBC makes loads of other podcasts.
0:15.6	Really?
0:16.4	Wow.
0:17.2	Many of them are very funny.
0:19.1	Which I think means...
0:20.3	A hatful of ha-hars. And energy. Even if we do very funny. Which I think means... A hatful of ha haas.
0:21.7	And energy.
0:42.2	Even if you do say so ourselves. I agree 100% to that. Find them all on BBC Sounds. Just tell us a joke. Come on, tell us a joke. Tell us a joke. Come on. Tell us a joke. Come on. Tell us a joke. Just search comedy on BBC Sounds. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in. Hello, this is the podcast of Inside Science, first broadcast on the 21st of August 2025.
0:43.8	I'm Marnie Chesterton.
0:48.8	Coming up on the show, heartbreaking science stories from the Siege of Leningrad,
0:55.9	how to save a species by hunting it, and Caroline Steele joins me to share this week's science news you need to know. Hi Caroline. Hello. What have you got for us? So turns out one of Jupiter's
1:01.7	moons could be a huge dark matter detector. Birds are as lazy at communicating as we humans are.
1:09.1	And I think we should use maths to win at guess who.
1:12.3	That all sounds fantastic.
1:14.0	Before all that, let's talk solar power.
1:17.3	It was way back in 1839 when French physicist Edmond Beccarell first suggested that you could get electricity by shining light on certain materials. He, alongside many of us alive
1:30.4	today, probably would be surprised to learn that by the 2030s, it's forecast to be our dominant energy
1:37.4	source on this planet. With such a huge market predicted, it's probably not surprising that
	...

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