WHAT ABOUT WHEN THE SUN WINKS OUT?:

The advantages of collecting solar power in space are obvious, says Thueux: "Outside the Earth's atmosphere, the sun's light is available indefinitely, not just during the day and in good weather like on Earth, plus it's about 50 percent more intense." For example, in geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometres above Earth, a solar panel the same size as one of its counterparts on Earth can generate significantly more electricity.

The power collected would be beamed down over a wide area in a safe and controlled manner. Back on Earth, a large number of antennas spread over a wide area, even off-shore, would pick up the beams and the energy would be reassembled to produce electricity. "The beams pass through clouds easily so loss of power is minimal. Also, the technology can be designed to prevent harm to birds or people flying in aircraft," assures Coste. Moreover, there is no need for complex and costly ground infrastructure, power plants, pipelines or cables, for example, to distribute the electricity on Earth. That, too, is done by Power Beaming.

Coste estimates that the levelised costs of energy would be the same as those of large-scale energy projects on Earth such as nuclear power plants, oil rigs and large renewable farms. Costs, though, would decrease as more power factories are built, due to economies of scale. One geostationary solar farm would generate about 2 gigawatts of electricity - the equivalent of one large fossil fuel or nuclear power station on Earth.

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