[RightWhale]

to get energy from the Moon

I'll just mention this, an old idea in the FR archives.

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Power generated on the moon or in space would be best used locally. Move power-hog industries such as aluminum and steel into space. This would do 4 things at once:

reduces power consumption on earth;
the nasty Kyoto agreement is mooted;
hastens development of space mineral resources;
more of earth's real estate may be zoned residential rather than heavy industry.

[RadioAstronomer]

Think of what kind of solar furnace you could construct. You would not even have the atmospheric contaminants to deal with.

There was a book written a few years ago called the "High Frontier" which delved into this subject (including mining the asteroids) quite thoroughly.