This is definitely groundbreaking. But I don’t understand why they’re doing it this way. I think the array that’s in space should be as simple as possible – an array made up of thin sheets of metallized mylar that reflect the sunlight to the photovoltaic array on Earth. In their system and mine, there has to be an array of collectors on Earth to gather the energy from space and convert it to electricity. In their system they have to convert the sunlight in space to electricity, to then be converted again to radio frequency, to be sent to Earth where it is converted again from radio frequency back to electricity.
In the system that I envision the sunlight is only converted a single time, when it reaches the ground, by a standard solar array. Since the array in space only consists of reflectors, it is much less expensive and much simpler. The directive controllers would be gyroscopes and would be powered by small solar panels. The array would be made up of multiple independent panels, each controlled and coordinated from the ground. The systems in space would be minimized to allow redundancy of the ground controllers.
The R & D company is called GuRu and is in Pasadena, California. They have already transmitted microwave energy from space to the ground and harvested it on Earth. They have a foldable array that is sent into orbit. They don’t say much about the array on Earth.
Watch this short YouTube video from CBS. https://youtu.be/I-w_11uQm7A
