I think the biggest problem is that the ground based receiving array is going to be so large you could have just installed solar panels in the same location. 24

I think the biggest problem is that the ground based receiving array is going to be so large you could have just installed solar panels in the same location. 24 hour power generation is nice, but the economics of batteries + ground based solar seems more likely to triumph. Edit: If you assume a ground based array has a 20% utilization factor, the space based panels + receivers can only be 5x the cost of the standard solar installation. Which requires ~free space launches, plus probably other technology we do not currently possess.