The atmospheric losses would not be in double digits, however even 2% loss of a gigawatt (the size of most nuke plants) would be 20 megawatts. The real danger is a decent size cloud could be very troublesome. Essential microwave is what you have on your kitchen counter and heats your food by radiating energy into the moisture or water in your food. Thats why a corningware plate doesn't heat up but the food does. Most likely the power transmission woul have to be interrupted every time a cloud passes by.
What you have then is the same thing we now have with wind power. Wind power actually uses more power than it creates simply because it is so unreliable and unsteady. This unsteadiness causes ripples in the overall grid that has to be overcome by yet more power genration.
The best answer to the energy crises is actually LED lights and other sustainable building design elements. The LEDs use a third less power than flourescent and last for about ten years. The reduction in the heat losses in the lighting will reduce AC costs so overall the average office building will see a 15 to 30 percent reduction in electricity usage. When you take all the office buildings across the US it would come out to be a lot more than all the generation we could get from orbiting space stations. BTW did I mention how big a one gigawatt transmiter would be? As a rough guess I'd say about the same size as a US navy destroyer. That's a lot of space shuttle flights.
I don't think this idea is going to happen in our lifetime.
Regards,
Boiler Plate
From what I read it has a closed carbon cycle and may actually sequester additional carbon in roots for certain perennial crops. Also what about methane from different sources like landfills and wastewater treatment?
Is this all BS or just not doable because of cost? It a good thought that we could grow and poop some of our own energy sources.
Anybody?