Ben Bova, the president emeritus of the National Space Society, wrote an editorial in the Washington Post about a proposal to send a satellite bearing solar panels into space and beaming the sun’s energy back to earth (via Inhabitat). He writes:

The solar power satellite is the ultimate clean energy source. It doesn’t burn an ounce of fuel. And a single SPS could deliver five to 10 gigawatts of energy to the ground continually. Consider that the total electrical-generation capacity of the entire state of California is 4.4 gigawatts.

The satellites would be a mile across and could deliver relatively inexpensive energy, starting at eight to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, about the same as conventional power generation stations.  And unlike with conventional sources, which rely on finite resources that are only getting steadily more expensive, the operating cost would drop with time.  But it would cost $1 billion to get the first one going, which Bova suggests could be funded in part with foresighted government policies and visionary entrepreneurs.

I believe we should be applying all we’ve got to collecting energy and making efficient use of it here on Earth.  This is where the jobs will be made.  But I do hope solar panel satellites are a robust part of America’s energy policy in, say, 2050.