Beaming Solar Energy to Earth

Solar energy is only on when the sun is up or efficient when it isn't cloudy or the collectors are covered in sand or snow.  To solve this problem, there was the idea of putting solar collectors into space.

This is an interesting little picture I shot of a partial eclipse in Edmonton in late 2014.  The lens flare is the cool part as it shows the partial sun.  I was using a pin-hole camera to view the eclipse rather than go blind staring at the sun myself.

These big space arrays would be in geostationary orbit above the earth and beam down the collected solar energy in the form of microwaves to collector pads.  This method would have the power always on as they are always in the sun and the energy is sent to earth continuously. 24 x 7.  Bad weather, sand storms, don't affect it either.  Sounds pretty darn good, but then I thought, what if the beam goes off course and you have a big microwave beam gun cooking huge swaths of the earth in its path?  Well, it turns out I have nothing to fear if they are using low frequency microwaves as the output is so low.  You wouldn't want to live there under the beam, but no streamers of birds or bugs like at some solar facilities.  It is an interesting idea and here are a couple of articles about it.

• http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/how-japan-plans-to-build-an-orbital-solar-farm
• http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/18/tech/innovation/space-based-solar-power/
• http://gizmodo.com/japanese-scientists-just-beamed-energy-through-the-air-1691291229