I see a potential problem - anything that moves into this laser or microwave beam would get fried as it was moving. That means an even greater kill-off of birds than meeting up with a wind turbine. And of course a plane full of passengers stands no chance.
What if the beam being sent down to the ground station gets knocked a little askew and is off the receiving antenna? Does this then burn a hole in the changed target area?
It is one thing to collect solar power to run an orbiting satellite, and another altogether to transmit the solar-generated power back to the earth’s surface. Maybe they can run a heavy-duty cable up to the orbiting solar collectors and transmit the power back that way.
Whatever they come up with will be made of the least expensive parts possible to maximize profit, and allow for the largest bribes possible to the CCP management.
Several Sci-fi novels about building an elevator from the surface up to a ‘La Grange Point’ ( https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/754/what-is-a-lagrange-point/ ). The biggest problem is that the connecting cable/wire/ribbon is hundreds of miles long and weighs hundreds of tons. Any connector will need the tensile strength to hold it’s own weight plus the weight of any ‘elevator’ that travels up/down the cable.
It may be that our technology will be able to build such a platform but even then the practicality is limited. And of course there is the matter of security at the connecting point on the surface. Any fanatical follower of the cult of mohammed (most of them) with a decent size bomb can end it all.
Unless it’s a stationary satellite, it will move. Kind of messes things up a little. If it’s a stationary satellite at 22,000 miles up, how much would it lose in transit.
Giant solar space-based mirrors to fry your enemies on the ground?
I’m sure their new space station plans will have that capability.