The author looks at an ambitious Japanese proposal to install solar panels on the moon's surface and beam the resulting solar energy to stations on the earth.

Orbiting solar power plants that harness the sun’s energy from space and beam it to Earth could be economically viable within three decades based on technologies currently being tested, according to a new study by scientists with the International Academy of Astronautics.

Beaming solar power down from space still looks awfully futuristic more than four decades after it was proposed. But dreams of energy driven by eternal sunshine have pushed several projects forward in the United States, Europe and Japan.

As the United States and India seek closer ties, should space-based solar power be on the agenda? Jeff Foust reports on developments in that field, including a new joint initiative supported by a former Indian president.

The former President of India and the National Space Society have launched a new prgram, the Kalam-NSS Energy Initiative, with a visionary, ambitious plan for harvesting solar power in space and beaming it down to Earth, turning America and India into net energy exporters.

Forget wind power or conventional solar power, the world's energy needs could be met 100 billion times over using a satellite to harness the solar wind and beam the energy to Earth – though focussing the beam could be tricky.

Space solar power advocates may soon get their day in the sun, as different projects aimed at beaming energy to Earth from orbit begin to take shape. But at least one space power scientist worries that a U.S.-based project may be promising too much, too soon.

Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is moving forward on their plans for a Space Solar Power System (SSPS), in which arrays of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth's atmosphere,capture solar energy, and beam it down to the ground through clusters of lasers or microwaves.

Researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have begun to develop a Space Solar Power System (SSPS) consisting of giant solar collectors in geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.

A profile of Solaren, an early-stage company that has raised money from investors to launch solar panels into space and use high-powered radio waves to beam back energy to earth.