"Beaming Power Tech Tested at Jaguars Stadium" Topic

Company ground tests technology to beam power from a remote location (in this case around 120 meters), a huge step towards beaming power from planned solar collecting satellites in low Earth orbit. link

One of the problems with theoretical orbital power stations is the ground area needed to receive and collect power transmission which would require remote locations for safety— but that also raises environmental concerns for wildlife. If they can "tight beam" it, these concerns could be seriously reduced.

Next speculation (solely from me)— what if power could be beamed directly to electric vehicles? This would reduce the need for batteries and physical charging stations. But that would be far future indeed…

Or possibly, a dream from our past: link

Years ago I was all in favor of solar collector satellites. Now I'm having second thoughts. They are capturing solar energy and beaming it down to Earth. Sounds good, except the energy they are capturing would have otherwise missed Earth entirely. Now that energy is being captured and sent down here where it will be used and ultimately turned to heat released into the environment--thus warming the Earth. Not a good thing these days.

*Facepalm*

That's not how it works. Seriously, not at all. Plus, in terms of a percentage of solar thermal energy striking Earth at any given time, the solar power intercepted by a satellite array wouldn't even be a blip. We're talking thousandths or even hundreds of thousandths of a percent.

Plus, solar output is not constant; it is variable. The Sun literally gets hotter or cooler over time, in frequent intervals— and the Earth warms and cools along with it— that's why we have Ice Ages and warming periods; it has nothing to do with any human heating activity (again, just a blip).

But even if it was, the real advantage of space-collected beamed power in any case is that it would replace earth-bound forms of power, including fossil fuels, and be more efficient. So we'd end up with less excess heat than would be generated otherwise.

And on top of that, it would reduce other environmental considerations, from mining to land clear-cutting (for solar and wind, which require vasts acreage to be effective), air, soil and water pollution, wildlife habitat destruction, etc., etc..

Of course, when we develop effective fusion technology, the whole idea will probably be moot…