The technology is further along than you might think for capturing solar energy in space – where the sun always shines – and beaming it to Earth. You can’t collect solar power at night. Well, at least not on Earth. So, it’d be appropriate to look at one promising, but futuristic, idea that could change the face of solar power generation: Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP).

    The idea of capturing solar power in space for use as energy on Earth has been around since the beginning of the space age. In the last few years, however, scientists around the globe – and several researchers at the Energy Department’s own Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) – have shown how recent technological developments could make this concept a reality.

   On earth, solar power is greatly reduced by night, cloud cover, atmosphere and seasonality. Some 30 percent of all incoming solar radiation never....