3 ms·

Well, they work at night if your solar power satellite is high enough (eq. GEO).

• ben_w 7y ago
  The same applies if the beaming is done with an optical laser instead of a microwave.
  • m4rtink 7y ago
    Sure, that's true - I guess microwaves still could have some benefits, for attenuation in the atmosphere/weather maybe ?
  • fpoling 7y ago
    Optical laser is rather inefficient at converting electricity into optical energy. Surely there are some low-powered diodes where one can get over 50%, but for powerful lasers efficiency like 1% is a good number. Consumer microwave ovens on the other hand has efficiency like 65%.