The idea of beaming solar power from space has floated around for decades, a perpetual promise of limitless, cable-free energy. The math, in theory, is sound. A satellite in geostationary orbit sees the sun almost constantly, unbothered by clouds or nightfall. The problem has always been the unit economics of building and launching the hardware, and the physics of safely transmitting gigawatts of power across 36,000 kilometers. It is the kind of challenge that tends to stay in government research labs, a nice thought experiment for a distant future.
TerraSpark, a Luxembourg-based startup founded in 2025, is betting that future is closer than we think, and that the path to it starts not with a grand, grid-scale vision, but with a more pragmatic wedge. The company recently secured a €5.4 million (about $6.2 million) pre-seed round to develop its system, with plans to start by delivering megawatt-scale power to places where the grid is weak, expensive, or nonexistent [ESG Today, Jan 2026]. Their first orbital demonstrator is slated for 2027, with the goal of space-to-Earth power transmission the following year [The Top Voices, retrieved 2026].
A wedge in low Earth orbit
TerraSpark’s public strategy is notably incremental. Instead of pitching a future of orbital power plants feeding continents, the company talks about starting in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and proving the economics with initial customers in remote industries, island nations, and disaster zones [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2025]. The first product thesis is around MW-scale delivery, a far cry from the GW-scale infrastructure of science fiction but a potentially viable product for a mining operation or a remote community reliant on diesel generators.
The technical approach involves modular satellites,'sunsats',that capture solar energy and transmit it to Earth using radio frequency (RF) waves [F6S, 2025]. The company plans to demonstrate wireless power transmission over controlled distances on the ground this year, a critical stepping stone before attempting the much harder feat from orbit [Saurenergy, retrieved 2026]. This step-by-step cadence is a deliberate attempt to de-risk both the technology and the business model, one milestone at a time.
The team that built hardware for Mars
The pre-seed round was led by a syndicate of European funds including Daphni, Sake Bosch, and Better Ventures [ESG Today, Jan 2026]. Investor confidence appears anchored less in near-term revenue,there are no publicly disclosed customers yet,and more in the founding team’s specific, hard-won credentials.
| Founder | Role | Key Background |
|---|---|---|
| Jasper Deprez | CEO | Bootstrapped Tradler into a global HR platform [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2025]. |
| Sanjay Vijendran | CTO | Led the European Space Agency’s SOLARIS space-based solar power R&D initiative; built hardware that landed on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander [ESA, retrieved 2026] [Explore Mars, retrieved 2026]. |
| Matthias Laug | Co-Founder | Former CTO of Just Eat Takeaway.com and co-founder of Tier Mobility [TechCrunch, 2018] [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2025]. |
Vijendran’s background is particularly salient. He didn’t just work at ESA; he spearheaded its dedicated Solaris program, giving him a front-row seat to the state-of-the-art technical hurdles and the evolving political will in Europe. A founder who has literally put hardware on Mars and spent years studying the exact problem his startup is tackling is a rare combination.
The case for starting small
The commercial logic for targeting remote demand first is straightforward. The cost of delivered energy in these locations is already high, often sourced from trucked-in diesel fuel. A space-based system wouldn’t need to compete with cheap grid power; it would only need to beat the cost of diesel generation, which includes not just fuel but complex logistics. For an island nation or a remote mining site, a reliable, weather-independent source of even a few megawatts could be transformative.
This focus also sidesteps, for now, the immense regulatory and safety questions surrounding beaming significant power over populated areas. Starting with controlled, isolated reception sites simplifies the initial path to deployment. If TerraSpark can prove the technology and economics at the MW scale for these niche markets, it builds a foundation of operational data, customer relationships, and revenue that could support the much larger leap to utility-scale aspirations.
Where the physics gets hard
For all the promising team dynamics and pragmatic market entry, the risks here are not small. They are fundamental questions of engineering and economics that have kept this category on the drawing board for 50 years.
- Transmission efficiency. Beaming power via RF over long distances involves significant losses. The system’s end-to-end efficiency,from sunlight in space to usable electricity on the ground,will be the ultimate determinant of its economic viability. TerraSpark has not published target figures.
- Launch costs and hardware durability. Even a MW-scale system requires launching substantial mass into orbit. While launch costs have fallen, they remain a dominant line item. The satellites must also operate reliably for years in the harsh radiation environment of space with minimal maintenance.
- The regulatory gauntlet. Transmitting RF energy to Earth touches on spectrum allocation, airspace safety, and potential environmental impacts. Navigating this will require close cooperation with national and international agencies, a process that is rarely fast.
The company’s most plausible answer to these concerns is its incremental timeline and its team’s deep regulatory and technical experience. Vijendran’s ESA tenure means he knows the players and the protocols in Europe’s space sector. The planned 2026 ground demonstration and 2027 orbital test are chances to gather data and build credibility long before anyone expects a commercial invoice.
The next twenty-four months
The immediate roadmap is clear and crowded. Success in the next two years is less about revenue and more about hitting technical milestones that keep investor confidence,and funding,flowing. The ground-based wireless power demo this year is the first tangible proof point. A successful orbital demonstrator in 2027 would be a major inflection, proving that the core transmission technology works in the relevant environment.
Financially, a pre-seed round of this size suggests the investors are buying into a multi-year, capital-intensive hardware development cycle. Another, larger round will likely be necessary well before 2028 to fund the first space-to-Earth transmission attempt and early commercial hardware.
On the back of an envelope, the arithmetic of remote power starts to make the wedge plausible. Diesel generation in a remote location can easily cost over $0.30 per kilowatt-hour. If a space-based system can deliver power at a lower lifetime cost, even at a high upfront capital expense, it finds a market. The trick is that the 'if' contains about a dozen major technical variables, from solar cell efficiency in space to the longevity of the transmission array.
For now, TerraSpark’s bet is that a team with Martian hardware experience and a stepwise plan can start to solve those variables, one megawatt at a time. The incumbent they must beat isn’t another space startup; it’s the diesel generator,a technology that is reliable, globally understood, and sitting on a century of refinements. That’s a high bar, but it’s also a bar defined by cost, not science fiction.
Sources
- [ESG Today, Jan 2026] TerraSpark Raises €5.4 Million to Provide Solar Power from Space | https://www.esgtoday.com/terraspark-raises-e5-4-million-to-provide-solar-power-from-space/
- [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2025] TerraSpark company and strategy overview
- [The Top Voices, retrieved 2026] TerraSpark development timeline
- [F6S, 2025] Terraspark SARL profile | https://www.f6s.com/company/terraspark-sarl
- [Saurenergy, retrieved 2026] TerraSpark ground demonstration plans
- [ESA, retrieved 2026] Sanjay Vijendran role at ESA SOLARIS | https://www.esa.int/
- [Explore Mars, retrieved 2026] Sanjay Vijendran work on NASA Phoenix Mars Lander | https://www.exploremars.org/
- [TechCrunch, 2018] Matthias Laug role at Tier Mobility | https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/23/tier-scooters/