[Vince Ferrer]

Using the power in space is a good idea, but most of the products would still be designed to be used on earth, which doesn't get around the transportation problem. A space elevator would be necessary for this to work.

Here's an idea that might work:

Take a load of Nitrogen-14 into space, and let radiation from the sun hit it, turning it into carbon-14, a radioactive isotope. This is what happens naturally in the atmosphere, we would just be doing it in a much more concentrated bundle. Take the Carbon-14 down to Earth, and make a nuclear battery out of the material. The battery would have a half life of 5700 years.

[boris]

Don't quit your day job.