Just had the random thought that instead of having batteries, we should just install actuated lasers everywhere that can track solar panels on our portable devices to power them.<p>Feel free to tear into this probably really awful ides.
40% efficiency is great for a laser, and 40% is great for photovoltaics so that is 16% end-to-end at best.<p>The Us Govt is working on laser satellites to beam power to earth anyway:<p><a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/space-based-solar-power" rel="nofollow">https://www.energy.gov/articles/space-based-solar-power</a><p>The Gerard K. O'Neill proposal of beaming microwaves from space gets revisited from time to time.<p>The solar array looks better and better because it can be something like a space blanket with a film of semiconductor evaporated onto it and is so lightweight it might be affordable to launch the materials from Earth.<p>This problem affects the microwave link<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinned-array_curse" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinned-array_curse</a><p>and probably means the transmitter is a separate space blanket with an antenna array printed on it. It looks less good.<p>All of this tech targets a market (terra firma) that has the most competitive energy markets in the solar system. People are struggling with how to fuel airliners and I wonder if an airliner could have enough stored energy to climb from JFK to 40,000 feet and then pick up a beam to cross the ocean.