Reply #120: Might as well put giant mirrors into space and direct them at Earth

[tinrobot]

Of course, if we did that, the planet would get warmer, so we don't.

This "space based solar" scheme would do exactly the same thing. It would collect visible light energy, convert it to microwaves and beam that energy towards the surface. The only difference is the wavelength of the photons. Sure, a lot of that microwave energy would be collected, but not all of it. The rest would warm up the planet.

We're trying to cool the planet, not warm it up. Why not just use ground-based solar to collect the energy that is already falling on the planet, rather than go into space to beam even more energy towards it?

I won't even get into the environmental dangers of beaming megawatts of microwaves through the atmosphere. This scheme is downright dangerous.