Space-power startup claims it can beam energy to solar farms

You can't generate solar power at night unless your panels are in space. A startup that wants to beam orbital sunlight straight into existing solar farms has just emerged from stealth, claiming a world-first power-beaming demo, but with a lot of critical information left unreported. 

Overview Energy announced on Wednesday that, after three years developing its technology in stealth mode, it managed to get a Cessna Caravan plane to send power to a solar installation on the ground from an altitude of 3 miles (5 kilometers). It's the first time, the company said, that anyone has managed to send energy to a stationary ground target from a transmitter in motion. 

Maybe this is the first power transfer from an airplane in motion, but we note that the California Institute of Technology said in 2023 that it had successfully beamed power from an orbiting satellite to a ground station ...