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Re:Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth by JoeAltmaier on Thursday August 29, 2013 @11:08AM (#6296211)
Space structures can be truly enormous, hold their shape with no gravity issues, be aimed with trivial amounts of energy, have no weather issues (no cloudy/rainy days). Any number of reasons this is a win.

Mr. Musk is just ranting. He's used conversion efficiency as his whole argument. The only argument worth having is total cost of ownership, which relates to payback time.

Re:Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth by oftenwrong on Thursday August 29, 2013 @11:33AM (#6296366)
I imagine micrometeoroid impacts would be a significant "weather" issue.
Re:Harvesting solar power in space and sending it back to Earth by JoeAltmaier on Thursday August 29, 2013 @11:45AM (#6296443)
Yes; of an entirely different nature than hurricanes, torrential rains etc. Unfortunately the best locations on earth for truly enormous high-efficiency solar are equatorial.