When rolling blackouts plunge France, Spain, and Portugal into darkness in early 2025, it sends a shiver through Europe’s halls of power. A crisis looms: renewable energy systems, hailed as our salvation, have revealed their limits. Political leaders scramble to stabilize their grids as digital hunger—driven by AI—continues to surge. In the shadows of failure, a once-dismissed energy solution flickers back to life—space-based solar power.

The film follows a bold group of energy space pioneers – scientists, engineers from the UK, USA, China and Europe – setting their foot on the most ambitious energy project ever conceived: building the first solar farm in space to beam clean, limitless power back to Earth.

For many national decision makers, this endeavor still sounds like science fiction. Though for Yelena—a filmmaker and passionate space enthusiast—it becomes a personal quest. She begins her journey with critical questions mirroring the sceptisism of governmental systems. As she travels through research labs, simulated lunar bases, and space agency halls, her perspective shifts.

Then comes a geopolitical jolt: China surges ahead, preparing to launch the first working demonstration of a space solar power station. Suddenly, what was once a dream becomes a race. Energy independence transforms from abstract aspiration into a contest of innovation and sovereignty. Will the West step up—or watch the solar sky slip away?

Chasing the Sun is a hybrid documentary where the narrative centers around Yelena’s real-world conversations with the key leading players, seamlessly blended with immersive, cinematic sci-fi scenes aboard her imagined space capsule. Through her eyes in space, viewers experience visions of massive orbital robotics, satellite constellations, and towering space elevators to lunar mines—bringing the epic scale of the project vividly to life.

The film builds towards an upcoming historic milestone: the first public demonstration of space-based solar power transmission set for 2027. Chasing the Sun explores the transformation of doubt into belief, and the geopolitical stakes of who will control the next energy revolution.