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<keyword id="22948419" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reflect-Orbital" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Reflect Orbital" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Reflect Orbital">Reflect Orbital</keyword>, a California-based startup, has set its sights on a futuristic goal: providing "<keyword id="22948420" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="sunlight-on-demand" source="keywords">sunlight on demand</keyword>" using orbiting mirrors in space. The company's vision is to address one of the biggest challenges in <keyword id="19915217" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solar-energy" source="keywords">solar energy</keyword> — the inability to generate power after sunset or during cloudy days — by using a fleet of <keyword id="20279522" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="small-satellites" source="keywords">small satellites</keyword> equipped with highly reflective <keyword id="22948421" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mylar-mirrors" source="keywords">Mylar mirrors</keyword>.<br /><h3 style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:14pt;margin-bottom:4pt;">How the technology works</h3>Reflect Orbital plans to deploy 57 small satellites into low-Earth orbit. Each satellite will be outfitted with a 33-square-foot reflective Mylar mirror. These mirrors are designed to reflect sunlight down to Earth, targeting <keyword id="20658734" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solar-farms" source="keywords">solar farms</keyword> and extending their operational hours by providing an extra 30 minutes of sunlight after sunset or before sunrise. The mirrors will focus sunlight into a concentrated beam, directed by solar farm operators using a simple interface, where users can log in, provide GPS coordinates, and request sunlight.<br /><div type="twitter" handle="bennbuilds" handlename="bennbuilds" favoritecount="0" retweetcount="0" id="1826682383514697993"></div>The idea is to make solar energy more available when it’s most needed — not just during daylight hours, but also in the early morning and evening when electricity demand is typically higher. This could potentially increase the efficiency and profitability of <keyword id="20423867" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solar-power-generation" source="keywords">solar power generation</keyword>, as energy produced during these periods can be sold at higher rates.<br /><h3 style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:14pt;margin-bottom:4pt;">Potential challenges</h3>Despite the excitement around this technology, there are several challenges that Reflect Orbital will need to overcome. Weather conditions such as thick clouds or storms could obstruct the reflected sunlight, limiting its effectiveness. Seasonal changes that affect the angle and duration of sunlight might also present difficulties. Additionally, the potential environmental impact, including light pollution and interference with astronomical observations, has raised concerns among scientists and environmentalists.<br /><div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="112805908" title="How will Sunita Williams’ body have changed when she returns from space in February 2025?" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Reflect Orbital is aware of these challenges and has designed the mirrors to minimise light pollution. The company has also tested its technology using a hot air balloon, which successfully simulated the satellite mirrors' effect by reflecting sunlight down to a solar farm. According to co-founder <keyword id="22948422" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ben-nowack" source="keywords">Ben Nowack</keyword>, the company was able to generate "500 watts of energy per square metre" of solar panel, which is about "half the brightness of the sun."<br /><div type="twitter" handle="bennbuilds" handlename="bennbuilds" favoritecount="0" retweetcount="0" id="1767961251186163857"></div>Reflect Orbital is still in the early stages, with plans to launch its first test satellite in 2025. Interest in the project has been strong, with over 30,000 applications already submitted by individuals and organisations eager to participate in the initial offering of "sunlight on demand."<br /><br />This ambitious project could mark a significant step forward in renewable energy technology if successful, providing a novel solution to the intermittent nature of solar power and helping to accelerate the transition to <keyword id="21313059" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sustainable-energy-sources" source="keywords">sustainable energy sources</keyword>.<br />

Space startup Reflect Orbital plans to sell "sunlight on demand" — how will it work?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Google is ready to go nuclear in the name of AI.</li><li>The search giant has struck a deal to bring new nuclear plants online to power its AI data centers.</li></ul><p>The energy demands of the data centers behind the generative AI boom are proving so great that they're pushing Big Tech firms into an unfamiliar position: becoming long-term customers to the nuclear industry.</p><p>Google became the first tech giant to broker a deal for entirely new nuclear power plants after it <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/google-kairos-power-nuclear-energy-agreement/?utm_source=tw&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=og&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_term=">unveiled a partnership with industry firm Kairos Power</a> on Monday. The deal will see the startup build "multiple" small modular nuclear reactors for the search giant.</p><p>The first of these reactors — which includes the one Kairos began constructing in East Tennessee in July — is set to be online by 2030. The others should be ready by 2035 and will enable up to 500 megawatts of "new 24/7 carbon-free power" to US electricity grids. Assuming continuous operation and average consumption levels, that's enough to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.carboncollective.co/sustainable-investing/gigawatt-gw">power about 438,000 US households</a> for one year.</p><p>Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted earlier this month that this was coming after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-considering-nuclear-power-energy-hungry-ai-data-centers-2024-10">he said in an interview</a> that his company was "evaluating technologies like small modular nuclear reactors."</p><div type="image" title="Sundar Pichai speaking." height="2824" width="4071" msid="114258507" hostid="261" sizebytes="346004"></div><p>While deal terms have not been disclosed, the significance of the arrangement is hard to overstate — and not just because the US has brought only three nuclear reactors online over the past two decades.</p><p>AI is pivoting Google and its rivals toward nuclear power as they signal the need for a new solution to the tech world's growing energy problem.</p><h2 id="cf443968-561f-498c-b239-87db8db26b6d"><strong>Generative AI strains the energy sector</strong></h2><p>Big Tech companies are racing to build smarter AI, but this requires a lot of energy.</p><p>Announcing the Kairos deal, Michael Terrell, senior director of energy and climate operations at Google, noted that the grid "needs new electricity sources" to support the energy needs of AI technologies the search giant is now heavily invested in.</p><p>Google revealed just how energy-intensive its AI push has been earlier this year. Its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2024-environmental-report.pdf">annual environmental report</a>, published in July, showed its emissions had risen 13% year-on-year in 2023, driven by "increased data center energy consumption and supply chain emissions."</p><p>That 86-page report didn't mention nuclear power, bar a single endnote. It shows that Google's Kairos deal is a sign that it is now ready to consider all options in its search for a supply of clean electricity to its data centers.</p><p>That's particularly important as it looks to build smarter versions of its AI model, Gemini. Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/emollick/status/1846172006376419691">noted on X</a> that the Google-Kairos deal "increases the odds that we will see AI models scale through at least 3 more generations/orders of magnitude (post GPT-5) to 2030."</p> <p>Others have recognized this, too. Since OpenAI <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chat-gpt-2023-1">launched ChatGPT</a> in late 2022, the world's biggest tech companies have been forced to confront the fact that staying competitive in generative AI will require vast supplies of clean energy.</p><p>By one estimate, a search request on OpenAI's buzzy chatbot <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/AI-poised-to-drive-160-increase-in-power-demand">demands around 10 times as much electricity</a> as a general Google search. The large language models behind it make the computing power in data centers buzz and whirr intensively to produce cogent responses.</p><p>While solar and wind power offer clean means of electricity generation, some in the tech industry have suggested that they are not enough to meet the demands of AI.</p><p>For instance, Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, said <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/ylecun/status/1837875035270263014">last month</a> that AI data centers would have to be built next to nuclear power plants as, in his view, they can produce the continuous "gigawatt-scale, low-cost, low-emission electricity" needed.</p><p>"The advantage is that there is no need for expensive and wasteful long-distance distribution infrastructure," he wrote on X while suggesting solar and wind are "nice" but neither simple nor cheap.</p><h2 id="5a41f8b3-f715-466a-9f86-890e9c5348b6">Microsoft's nuclear moves </h2><p>Google rival Microsoft signaled interest in nuclear power in September after it struck a 20-year power supply agreement with Constellation — an agreement that would see the Baltimore-based energy company <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/three-mile-island-nuclear-plant-reopens-power-microsoft-ai-push-2024-9">reopen the nuclear plant on Three Mile Island.</a></p><p>The Island's second unit was shut down in 1979 after it became the site of the most serious nuclear meltdown on US soil, so the move from Microsoft to turn to the site is significant — even if it is reviving the island's first unit as opposed to the first one. It is expected to come online by 2028 and provide over 800 megawatts of power, about enough to keep a small-to-mid-sized city running.</p><p>In March, Amazon bought a data center in Pennsylvania from Talen Energy for $650 million, which is powered by the nuclear Susquehanna Steam Electric Station.</p><p>Meanwhile, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-scope-of-sam-altmans-future-ai-empire-open-ai-2024-3">OpenAI boss Sam Altman said at Davos</a> earlier this year that an energy "breakthrough" driven by greater investment in nuclear fusion would be needed to accelerate future AI developments. Altman invested $375 million in a personal capacity into fusion power company Helion Energy in 2021.</p><p>The prospect of the energy source taking on a greater role in Big Tech's operations becomes even more significant when considering the nuclear industry's decades of stagnation due to delayed projects.</p><p>That doesn't seem like a deterrent, however. Big Tech firms look all in on AI. Expect them to be all in on energy sources that keep the technology ticking.</p>

Google is taking the nuclear option to power soaring demand for AI. Here's why it's such a big deal.

The global semiconductor industry is heading into a strong recovery phase, with revenue anticipated to reach $630 billion in 2024, a 19% rise over the previous year, as noted by the latest <keyword id="21638387" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gartner-report" source="keywords">Gartner report</keyword>. This growth trend follows a challenging 2023 and appears to be set for continued momentum, with projections estimating an additional increase to $717 billion by 2025.<br /><br />The boost comes as <keyword id="20176122" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-technologies" source="keywords">AI technologies</keyword>, data-processing advancements, and a return in electronics manufacturing drive market demand. AI-related chips, in particular, have become essential as applications expand across sectors—from high-performance computing to everyday consumer electronics. <br /><br />As a result, memory components such as <keyword id="23726596" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NAND-flash" source="keywords">NAND flash</keyword> and DRAM are experiencing increased demand, addressing more specialised computing needs and supporting AI-intensive workloads. Gartner highlights that NAND flash, essential in AI systems, is set to see significant gains, with a 12% revenue increase by 2025, driven partly by persistent undersupply and soaring demand in AI applications.<br /><br />The demand surge is similarly benefiting GPUs, which are vital to AI development, particularly in model training and deployment. After experiencing a dip in 2023, the <keyword id="23292216" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="GPU-market" source="keywords">GPU market</keyword> is expected to rebound strongly, potentially growing by 27% in 2025 and reaching $51 billion. The specialised memory segment, especially high-bandwidth memory (HBM), has also seen increased investment to support the high-capacity needs of modern AI hardware, with manufacturers scaling production and enhancing memory packaging.<br /><br />DRAM is also seeing a resurgence, driven by the production of high-bandwidth memory and rising adoption of DDR5 technology, which offers faster and more efficient data processing. Analysts note that these advances are contributing to a recovery for DRAM, with revenues projected to rise from $90.1 billion in 2024 to $115.6 billion by 2025, as supply issues ease and technology progresses.<br /><br />This robust growth in semiconductors reflects the sector’s adaptation to AI and data-processing needs, as memory technologies evolve to match these rising demands. While the market for automotive and industrial applications has seen slower growth, the trajectory in consumer electronics and AI-powered solutions keeps the semiconductor industry on track for a dynamic, technology-driven period of expansion. With AI, memory technologies, and GPU enhancements leading the way, the semiconductor market appears well-positioned for sustained growth.<br /><br />(With ANI inputs)<br />

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Space startup Reflect Orbital plans to sell "sunlight on demand" — how will it work?

Ankush Banerjee

Google is taking the nuclear option to power soaring demand for AI. Here's why it's such a big deal.

Hasan Chowdhury

Global semiconductor sector expected to grow due to AI demand, new report says

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