Space Internet Could Lower CO2 Emissions

According to a new report, the use of satellite-based broadband internet has the potential to lower the CO2 emissions associated with conventional broadband supply. On the basis of this, space-delivered broadband should be the subject of detailed analysis by industry and governments alike, the Space Innovation and Growth Team says.

An added benefit of using satellites to supply broadband would be that parts of the UK relatively badly-served by the internet would be better off.

Space Broadband

The Space Innovation and Growth Team (Space IGT) is a brand new, UK organisation concerned with all aspects of the UK space industry. Over the next 20 years, it sees this industry expanding to reach a value of £40 billion per annum and, in its Space Innovation and Growth Strategy, it highlights the idea of space-supplied broadband. This, it says, could be a means of improving energy efficiency and decreasing carbon emissions, compared to standard internet services.

Space Internet: Reduced Emissions

Britain’s present level of space investments ranks it 21st in the global spending list, with a top ten comprised of countries like Italy, Germany and France. It would rise to tenth place if investment into space technologies, like space internet, increased two-fold.

Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, Britain is compelled to have reduced greenhouse gas emissions to 12.5 per cent below 1990 levels.

“The UK should use the low-carbon characteristics of delivering broadcast and broadband services from space to help meet our national emissions reduction targets”, the report stresses.

“Low-carbon services will be critical if we are to meet national carbon emission reduction targets, and we therefore propose to use the potential of space as a way of reducing the ICT sector’s carbon footprint.”

The report adds: “Depending on the architecture adopted for the Next Generation Broadband infrastructure, Space can deliver as much as 40 million tonnes of CO2 savings per annum for the UK compared to terrestrial infrastructure.”

It concedes, however, that – at this stage - the issue represents “a complex argument and needs to be developed fully in the light of independent studies being produced for ESA [The European Space Agency].”

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