Building solar panels in space using resources gathered in space, and beaming the electricity is an idea recently floated by ULA to create a space economy[1].
RF/microwave engineer here: It would basically be a giant death ray in space, pushing that amount of energy through the air via microwave or laser is scary as shit.
Isaac Asimov has a great short story about robots manning such a satellite. One had a glitch whereby he totally worshipped the sun and beaming the energy was the purpose of his "temple". He wouldn't let the humans interfere, which ostensibly violated the laws of robotics until they realized the robot was effectively committed to saving the earth.
> At the Earth's surface, a suggested microwave beam would have a maximum intensity at its center, of 23 mW/cm2 (less than 1/4 the solar irradiation constant), and an intensity of less than 1 mW/cm2 outside the rectenna fenceline (the receiver's perimeter).[82] These compare with current United States Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) workplace exposure limits for microwaves, which are 10 mW/cm2,[83] - the limit itself being expressed in voluntary terms and ruled unenforceable for Federal OSHA enforcement purposes.[citation needed] A beam of this intensity is therefore at its center, of a similar magnitude to current safe workplace levels, even for long term or indefinite exposure.
Even if we assume the conversion efficiency of microwaves are much better than solar, if the beam at its peak is less than 1/4 ordinary solar irradiation, why would this be more economical than ground-based solar?
If we're building space elevators, we could just cover the uninhabited desert parts of libya and algeria with hundreds of square km of photovoltaics...
Thanks for pointing that out. I'm always amazed to see how many people don't understand the ramification of pushing gigawatts through air. People who are worried about birds getting killed by wind turbines? You have no idea what this much energy will do...
Either the power density is high enough that it roasts anything crossing the beam path, or it's low enough that it's not appreciably higher than regular old sunlight flux.
So it's not outside the realm of possibility.
[1] http://www.ulalaunch.com/uploads/docs/Published_Papers/Comme...