It is indeed fascinating. From the same species that was able to send a robot to Mars, make it land in a parachute and then communicate with it from another planet, here comes yet another achievement: sending objects to the space, unfold them like origami, deploy a huge yet very thin surface to capture the unobstructed light of the sun, and beam it to the surface. Not bad at all!

The potential of solar energy is humongous. However, here in the surface, we are always forced to deal with systems that require not just capturing such energy - while we fight with the day/night cycle and with obstacles like clouds, dust, moisture, the atmosphere itself, etc.- but also to store it in batteries or other systems (hydrogen, gravity...) to be able to fulfill the demand when the sun is not shining.

These storage systems always imply losing a significant portion of that energy and, besides that, sending such energy sometimes to faraway places through the grid, thus losing yet another sizable portion. The idea of capturing the energy in a place where it flows constantly, with no day versus night fluctuations and no obstacles, and with a much higher efficiency due to the lack of protection of the atmosphere sounds extremely attractive.

The main point here is to consider that deploying these type of installations out there in the space will progressively become not just less expensive, but also far easier as we gain experience and we keep reutilizing rockets and other components. Right now, it still sounds somehow far fetched and akin to science-fiction, but bear in mind that our friend Elon is already sending rockets on a regular and frequent basis and putting dozens of satellites in orbit every few days or weeks, and gaining a lot of valuable experience in the process. In just a few years, this idea will look way more simple, and even more attractive!