Transmission loses would probably make a balloon a wash vs ground-based solar. Then there's the liability of some mass of solar panels floating over populated a

Transmission loses would probably make a balloon a wash vs ground-based solar. Then there's the liability of some mass of solar panels floating over populated areas. At 5km an untethered balloon would have a fairly wide area it could land on. A 5km tether dragging around or falling on the ground could cause a lot of damage as well. There's also dangerous conditions when atmospheric conditions cause the balloon to lower its altitude, slacking the tether, and low altitude wind whipping it around. I don't see any utility of untethered balloons.