74. SPACE-BASED SOLAR POWER

♤ Space-based solar power (SBSP) is an idea of collecting solar power in space for use on Earth.

♤ SBSP would differ from current solar collection methods in that the means used to collect energy would reside on an orbiting satellite instead of on Earth's surface.

♤ Part of the solar energy is lost on its way through the atmosphere by the effects of reflection and absorption. Space-based solar power systems convert sunlight to microwaves outside the atmosphere, avoiding these losses, and the downtime (and cosine losses, for fixed flat-plate collectors) due to the Earth's rotation.