Space-Based Solar Power

In space there is 10 to 1000x more powerful solar energy afaik. One side is super cold, facilitating emitting waste heat into space, and the other side provides all the energy you need, 24x7. The main challenge is moving the datacenter out of solar storm zones with sufficient advance notice, but this is entirely possible using early-warning solar monitoring satellites and basic propulsion.

Solar beamed power from orbital facilities?

marginally relevant. space based dawn dusk LEO solar infra is the answer. vastly more power than we'll ever get on the surface of this rock and then onto Sol.

I support nuclear but if you're beaming power from space, it might as well be from solar panels. In geostationary orbit you have power 24/7, with 5X more sunlight per day than panels on the ground. The only time your satellite goes into shadow is for a few minutes per day around the equinoxes, half an hour max. Capacity factor is still over 99%.

What’s the bullish story for why solar panels in space with microwave beaming is better than solar panels on earth?

Can someone explain to me why it makes more sense to put large, complex pieces of equipment in space where maintaining it is costly, and then beam power though the atmosphere, as opposed to putting simple, easily maintainable tech on the ground, with the input radiation already having traverse the atmosphere? Is there such an advantage power wise that this is worth doing?

If you're using giant microwave death rays to beam power down from orbit you may as well generate the power up there using solar panels. ;)

Non-paywall version: https://archive.ph/uu5jJThis seems like a bad idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power#Disadv...

For a space based solution you have all the costs of solar, plus launch costs, plus the receivers are very large and costly themselves.It’s never going to be cheaper than solar, but it does have the advantage of working at night and through cloud cover.In the very long run it might make more sense to launch whatever’s using the power into space as well, saving on the cost of the transmission and receiving infrastructure, but also removing further sources of pollution from Earth.

I've always wondered (especially after a Dr Hossenfelder video about it). Even if we figured out all of the tech to get such a solar cell satellite into orbit for a reasonable cost, they still need a giant ground station to accept the power. How much power would that ground station generate if it was simply a bunch of solar cells instead of microwave receiver? A space cell might get power 24/7, but if 75% is lost in the conversion, how is that better than a ground based cell that gets