[irv]

Make it work and then beam the energy to Earth.

"Beaming" energy back to Earth strikes me as remarkably dangerous. One smart terrorist infiltrates the wrong computer system and a city is incinerated. I don't like this.

OTOH, setting up a permanent base to mine the Moon sounds great.

[Young Werther]

Low intensity microwave beams were proposed as the way to beam electrical energy from Dr O'Neil's Solar Power Generating stations in geosynchronous orbit to the Earth. Large rectennas, (recitfying antenna), would convert the microwave energy to AC which would be fed into the power grid.

NASA has already tested this form of electrical energy at White Sands by beaming the energy from one mountain top to another. There would be no death rays descending from on high at the hands of a terrorist!