Are Current Launch Costs Sufficient?

We're back to kick off 2026!

While the world debates how to power the next era of compute, data centers, and industrial growth, Overview Energy is betting the answer is above us. The company is building infrastructure to beam power from space directly to Earth's grid.

Founded by Marc Berte, a nuclear and aerospace engineer who spent his career at the intersection of lasers, spacecraft, and high-energy systems, Overview is developing a constellation of satellites in geosynchronous orbit that absorb sunlight, convert it to near-infrared laser light, and transmit it to existing utility-scale solar projects on the ground. No new receivers required. By using wide-beam, passively safe transmission and off-the-shelf ground infrastructure, Overview aims to deliver dispatchable, redirectable power anywhere on the planet, turning space solar from science fiction into grid-scale reality.

We discuss:

• Why space solar energy is finally viable after decades of false starts
• How Overview's architecture avoids the in-space assembly problem entirely
• How the economics work: matching cost curves to high-price markets first
• Why GEO matters more than LEO for grid-scale power delivery
• The role of launch cost as the critical external variable
• Why space solar could be the demand flywheel that drives launch costs down for everyone

• Chapters •

00:00 - Intro
00:48 - The main problem Overview Energy is solving and why now
04:34 - Why didn’t Marc pursue nuclear fusion/fission?
05:34 - Incubated in Vast
06:32 - State of the art today?
09:58 - Acquisition and beaming down of solar energy and its efficiency
12:23 - Safety, regulatory, and precision constraints
14:54 - Competitive positioning in space solar power
16:20 - Economics of orbital energy vs terrestrial renewables
19:25 - How much more should someone be paying for orbital energy
23:46 - Who will be their first customers?
25:39 - What does the infrastructure look like?
27:39 - Biggest bottleneck for orbital energy
29:34 - Are current launch costs at the level needed for Overview Energy to kick off?
30:27 - Commercial traction
31:46 - Testing and evaluating these systems with the DoD and NASA
33:38 - Early demonstrations and proof points
35:21 - Overview Energy’s space-based demonstration
36:22 - Chinese competition
38:30 - How much more investment is needed to achieve the first gigawatt of power from space?
40:42 - Can terrestrial renewables meet power demands without space-based energy
43:41 - Grid of the future with orbital power in the picture
44:50 - The technical unknowns of orbital energy
48:24 - Powering other space assets
49:46 - What Marc is building when he’s not working at Overview Energy
 

• Show notes •

Overview Energy’s website — https://www.overviewenergy.com/
Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam
Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace
Ignition’s socials — https://twitter.com/ignitionnuclear / 
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ignition-nuclear/
Tectonic’s socials  — https://twitter.com/tectonicdefense / https://www.linkedin.com/company/tectonicdefense/
Valley of Depth archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/

• About us •

Valley of Depth is a podcast about the technologies that matter — and the people building them. Brought to you by Arkaea Media, the team behind Payload (space), Ignition (nuclear energy), and Tectonic (defense tech), this show goes beyond headlines and hype. We talk to founders, investors, government officials, and military leaders shaping the future of national security and deep tech. From breakthrough science to strategic policy, we dive into the high-stakes decisions behind the world’s hardest technologies.

• Payload: www.payloadspace.com
• Ignition: www.ignition-news.com
• Tectonic: www.tectonicdefense.com