Do we need solar power from space?

There was a slightly unexpected announcement this month that the British government has commissioned some new research into space-based solar power. It’s not a new idea – Isaac Asimov dreamt it up in the 1940s, writing a short story about a robot that works on a space station “established to feed solar energy to the planets.” (In true Sci-fi blindspot tradition, the story has sentient robots and space-based solar power, but engineers still work out calculations manually with a slide rule.)

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