Either stuff could be manufactured in space or, light could be beamed down to the planet; I wasn't thinking of a solar array of photo-voltaic panels, but rather an array of mirrors and something to condense it into a deathray / beam.
The great thing about a solar array in space is it can be in sunlight 100% of the time, without needing to change orientation, and the shadow it casts needn't be on earth (i.e. nothing is deprived of sunlight).
The difficulty is that since the earth spins, and we couldn't beam down to the same location, so maybe we'd need an array of geo-statically orbiting beam relay stations to switch between.
The great thing about a solar array in space is it can be in sunlight 100% of the time, without needing to change orientation, and the shadow it casts needn't be on earth (i.e. nothing is deprived of sunlight).
The difficulty is that since the earth spins, and we couldn't beam down to the same location, so maybe we'd need an array of geo-statically orbiting beam relay stations to switch between.