2×
Data centres worldwide are expected to use more than twice as much electricity by 2030.
IEA, Energy & AI (2025)
Solar power from space
Clean power, day and night.
Aphelia is building satellites that collect sunshine in space, where it never gets dark, and send the energy down to Earth. That means clean electricity 24 hours a day, rain or shine. Made in Malaysia.
- Power, day and night
- 24/7the goal for every satellite
- Batteries needed
- 0the sun never sets in orbit
- Homes per satellite
- ~4,0001.5 MW, around the clock (target)
- Less land than a solar farm
- 90%for the same steady power (estimate)
How it works
Three steps, from the sun to your socket.
It sounds like science fiction, but every step uses technology that already exists. What's new is making it small, efficient and affordable enough to sell power.
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1
Catch sunlight in space
Our satellite sits about 36,000 km above the equator. Up there there's no night, no clouds and no weather, so its solar panels see the sun more than 99% of the time.
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2
Send it down as radio waves
The satellite turns that electricity into a focused beam of radio waves, the same family of waves that carries satellite TV and Wi‑Fi, and aims it at one receiving station on the ground.
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3
Turn it back into electricity
On the ground, a field of special antennas catches the beam and turns it back into electricity, which flows straight into the power grid. No fuel, no smoke, no batteries.
Why it matters
Solar panels stop at night. Our world doesn't.
Hospitals, factories, trains and the data centres behind every app and AI tool need power every second of every day. Solar panels on the ground only work while the sun is up and the sky is clear, so they need huge batteries and a lot of land. In space, that problem disappears.
130×
Johor's data-centre capacity grew from about 10 MW to 1.3 GW between 2021 and 2024.
Aphelia market analysis
70%
of Malaysia's power capacity is planned to be renewable by 2050.
National Energy Transition Roadmap
Power over one day
Same sun. Very different day.
Drag across the chart to see each hour. This shows a clear, sunny day; clouds and monsoon rain cut ground solar even further. Aphelia's round-the-clock output is a design target.
The satellite
Folds up for launch.
Opens up in space.
Like origami, the satellite's panels fold up tightly to fit inside a rocket, then open out once it reaches orbit. One side faces the sun to collect power; the other faces Earth to send it down. Press Deploy to watch it unfold.
Stowed for launch
- Size when open
- 170 × 170 m about four football pitches
- Power
- 1.5 MW around 4,000 homes, 24/7 (target)
- Height
- 36,000 km above the equator, fixed in the sky
- Lifetime
- 35 years design target
Rain or shine
Built for tropical storms.
Heavy rain can weaken radio waves. So when a storm rolls in, the satellite automatically switches to a lower frequency that slips through rain more easily, a bit like how bass notes carry through walls. Try it: press “Heavy rain”.
- Radio frequency
- 19.7 GHz
- Energy getting through the air
- 99.43%
- Mode
- Nominal mode
- How often
- ~97% of the year
Illustration, not to scale. Figures are Aphelia estimates for Malaysian weather. If the satellite stayed on its normal frequency in heavy rain, only about 4% would get through; switching frequency keeps it above 40%.
How it compares
Clean, steady power, without the trade-offs.
Today, getting clean power around the clock means either a huge solar farm with batteries, or a nuclear plant. Here's how space solar stacks up.
Solar farm + batteries
- Clean energy
- Quick to build
- Only makes power in the daytime
- Needs giant batteries for the night
- Takes up a lot of land
Small nuclear reactor
- Steady power, 24/7
- 12–15 years to approve and build
- Needs a lot of cooling water
- Strict international licensing
Aphelia space solar
- Clean energy
- Steady power, 24/7
- No batteries needed
- About 90% less land than a solar farm
- No cooling water
Aphelia figures are design targets that still need to be proven in orbit. That's exactly what our roadmap is for.
Why Malaysia
Malaysia sits right under the best spot in space.
Satellites that stay fixed in one spot in the sky all orbit directly above the equator. Malaysia is almost on the equator, so the beam comes nearly straight down: the shortest, clearest path from space to the ground.
The right place
Being almost on the equator gives Malaysia a short, steep, uncrowded path up to the satellite.
Real demand
Johor's fast-growing data centres need large amounts of clean power, around the clock.
A national push
Malaysia's space plans aim to grow the space industry to 1% of GDP and 5,000 jobs by 2030.
What happens next
Step by step, from the lab to orbit.
Each step has to work before we take the next one.
2026 – 2027 · now
Prove it on the ground
Beam power across a test range using our own chips and antennas.
2027 – 2028
A first small satellite
A small test satellite proves the whole journey, from space down to the ground.
2028 – 2030
A first pilot customer
A pilot system for an early customer, using the same kind of receiving station.
2030 – 2032
Building at scale
Satellites go into production, and we start working with partners across Southeast Asia.
2032 – 2033
The first full-size satellite
Our first full-size satellite starts selling power, followed by a fleet.
Recognition
Recognised across the space industry.
ESRIC · Luxembourg
Start-up Support Programme
Selected for Batch 5, one of seven startups worldwide — the first from Malaysia
Startup World Cup 2023
Malaysia national champion
Represented Malaysia at the Grand Finale, San Francisco
Payload Pioneers 2024
Razlan Hamdan, honoree
Payload's annual list of rising leaders in space
Ecosystem
MASIC member
Malaysia Space Industry Consortium, launched 2023
Partner · Canada
Spaceium
Letter of intent on wireless power for orbital service stations
Partner · United States
Astrolab
Cooperation agreement on wireless power technology
Questions
Good questions, straight answers.
What is space-based solar power?
Solar power that is collected by satellites in space and sent wirelessly down to Earth. Because there is no night or cloud in orbit, the power can flow all day and all night.
Is the beam safe?
Safety is designed in from the start. The beam is spread over a large area rather than focused into a tight spot, it is aimed at a fenced receiving station, and the satellite only transmits while it is locked onto a guide signal sent up from that station. Exact safety limits will be agreed with regulators before anything is switched on.
What happens when it rains?
Heavy tropical rain weakens radio waves, so the satellite switches to a frequency that gets through rain more easily. Less power arrives during the heaviest storms, but it doesn't stop.
Why not just build more solar farms?
We need those too. But solar farms only work while the sun is up, need a lot of land, and need large batteries to keep the lights on at night. Space solar adds steady power that doesn't depend on the weather or the time of day.
How much power does one satellite make?
Each full-size satellite is designed to deliver about 1.5 megawatts, around the clock. That's roughly enough for 4,000 homes.
When will it be ready?
We are testing on the ground now (2026–2027). A small test satellite is planned for 2027–2028, and our first full-size satellite for around 2032–2033.
Who is Aphelia?
A Malaysian space-technology company (Powerwaver Sdn. Bhd.) based in Kuala Lumpur. We design our own antennas and chips, and work with universities, regulators and partners around the world.
Get in touch
Want to know more?
Whether you run a utility, a data centre or a government agency, or you're simply curious, we'd love to hear from you.