Chinese researchers informed recently last June 2022 to have successfully tested a full-system model of technology that could one day wirelessly transmit solar power from outer space to Earth. A model power station at Xidian University in Shaanxi province captures sunlight high above the ground and converts it into microwave beams. It then transmits through the air to a receiver station on the ground, where it can be converted back to electricity. While the model only sends the energy 55 meters through the air, the researchers hope the technology could one day be expanded to send power from orbiting solar panels to Earth. The promise of solar power from space is that it would eliminate the clean energy technology’s biggest drawback -- not being able to operate in darkness -- by putting the panels in orbit where they can evade Earth’s shadow. Click to read more about this interesting research, Bloomberg article and here the original in Chinese, with some more pictures of the experiment
