Solaren and PG&E To Use Solar Power From Space (huh?)

It has been reported that PG&E is seeking an approval from the state of California to purchase 200 Megawatt of solar power, power that would be harvested from space.

“This will be the world’s first Space Solar Power plant. While a system of this scale and exact configuration has not been built, the underlying technology is very mature and is based on communications satellite technology,” Gary Spirnak, CEO, Solaren.

The harvested solar energy will be converted in radio waves (micro-waves?) and beamed back to earth to be reconverted in electricity. That’s interesting, but we fail to see how it can be cost-efficient. This might be a way for Solaren to get some funding to run its program. From PG&E’s point of view, as long as the price is right, why not do it? In any case, PG&E is not “investing” in Solaren, said a spokesperson for the energy company. Let’s hope that we won’t be “zapped” by the beam…