Europe’s energy transition is gathering pace, but its architecture remains weak. In the EU, solar and wind generation surpassed generation from fossil fuel sources for the first time in 2025, reaching 30% of total electricity production, compared to just 5% in 2010.
It’s a historic result, but the more wind and solar power grows in significance, the more the structural tensions of a system based on non-programmable sources come to the fore. This is why we are already looking beyond the familiar technologies currently in widespread use.
It’s not a question of whether renewables work, but of how the system behaves when they exceed certain thresholds. Studies by the International Energy Agency and analyses by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change all point to the same conclusion: when variable generation accounts for more than 60-70% of the electricity mix, grid stability becomes a systemic issue requiring massive investment in storage, flexibility and smart grids.
Solar power production is concentrated during the middle of the day, often creating local energy surpluses that drastically drive down wholesale prices (the so-called “cannibalisation effect”), while in the evening — when domestic demand rises — generation plummets. This phenomenon is known as the “duck curve”, observed first in California and now evident in many European markets with high levels of solar generation.
Although wind power is more evenly distributed throughout the course of the day, it remains subject to variations in the weather. According to the IEA, under “Net Zero by 2050” scenarios, global demand for storage capacity will need to increase more than six-fold over current levels to support the expansion of renewables.
The question of raw materials also has to be considered: photovoltaics and batteries rely on global supply chains centred on refined silicon, lithium, cobalt and rare earths. The International Renewable Energy Agency has stressed that demand for critical minerals could quadruple by 2040 under advanced decarbonisation scenarios. Sustainability, therefore, is not just about emissions, but is also bound up with the security of supply chains and the impact of mining.
Finally, there is the matter of energy density and land use. Renewable energy requires more land than conventional power stations: large-scale solar farms or wind farms involve territorial planning, social acceptance and complex authorisation procedures, making the transition not just a technological issue, but a geographical and political one too.
It is against this backdrop that “alternatives to alternative energy” are emerging, not as replacements for solar or wind power, but as complementary solutions that can address their structural limitations: continuity of generation, independence from weather conditions, and system-wide integration.
While the first phase of the transition focused on the expansion of renewables, the second phase is all about their industrial maturity; a maturity which lies in the ability to guarantee clean energy at all times, not just when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
The European Space Agency and the SOLARIS project
The concept of a solar power station in orbit calls for a rethinking of the relationship between energy and gravity. The SOLARIS project launched by the European Space Agency is investigating the technical and political feasibility and affordability of so-called “space-based solar power stations”. Situated approximately 36,000 kilometres from Earth, these gigantic photovoltaic plants would be capable of soaking up continuous solar radiation (with no clouds, nights or seasons to get in the way) and transmitting the energy collected back to the planet in the form of microwaves or laser beams.
The principle is as simple as it is revolutionary. Radiation in space is more intense and constant than the radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface. An orbital platform could therefore generate energy round the clock, converting solar radiation into electricity and then into electromagnetic waves directed towards special receiving stations on earth, where the energy would be reconverted and fed into the grid.
SOLARIS is not an operational project, but a feasibility study addressing key issues: the costs of launch and in-orbit assembly, the sustainability of materials, the security of transmissions, and the geopolitical acceptability of space-based energy infrastructure. Yet the mere fact that the European Space Agency is seriously considering this option speaks volumes about the scale of the current energy challenge. The aim is no longer simply to generate clean energy, but to do so in a continuous, scalable manner that can be integrated into an increasingly complex electricity system. In this sense, orbit is the latest extension of the Earth’s energy mix: a new “frontier” that expands the physical scope of the transition.
