This Far-out Idea Could Enable Solar Panels to Work at Night

In a laboratory amid Northern Virginia's sprawling data centers, a group of scientists is looking very far outside the box for a solution to overwhelmed power grids.

They want to harness the sun's rays and shoot a kilometer-wide laser, they prefer the term "power beam," down from satellites in space to solar panels on Earth. The idea is to overcome solar power’s biggest weakness: that it stops working when there is no sunlight.

If all goes according to plan — a big if, as this is a vision innovators and investors have been chasing for decades — those beams could turn the energy industry on its head. They would enable off-the-shelf solar panels to generate electricity even at night and could more than triple the amount of energy produced by a conventional solar farm.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.