This is the kind of energy story I've been looking for:

California's biggest energy utility announced a deal Monday to purchase 200 megawatts of electricity from a startup company that plans to beam the power down to Earth from outer space, beginning in 2016.

There are just so many difficulties with huge arrays on earth: darkness, the need to keep them clean, the sheer size of the arrays (and the consequent NIMBY and environmental impact battles the size causes). Arrays in space just avoids all of that. Sure, there are costs (lifting them into space), but it just seems like a more workable idea.

Not to mention that it seems very Jetsons-y to me :)

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