, the total power capacity of the plant or plants would increase to 1 gigawatt, the equivalent of the current largest nuclear power reactor.
A solar energy plant is not efficient because it only operates during the day, and the atmosphere reflects or absorbs nearly half the energy in the sunlight. Over the last few decades, various forms of solar power stations have been proposed from around the world but they remained theoretical because of major technical challenges.
Tesla failed in part because he made the electricity travel in the air like waves in all directions. To increase the effective range, the energy must be concentrated into a highly focused beam. Another hazard would be radiation. According to one calculation by a research team with Beijing Jiaotong University last year, residents could not live within a 5km range of the ground receiving station for the 1GW Chinese solar plant in space.
The US Air Force, for instance, plans to send satellites in two or three years to verify key technology to beam energy to Earth. The energy would be used to power drones or remote military posts.