Researchers in Japan are advancing technology that could one day generate solar power in space and wirelessly transmit electricity back to Earth.

Viral posts claiming that Japanese scientists became the first to successfully generate electricity in space and beam it wirelessly back to Earth are partly exaggerated, but the underlying technology is real and progressing rapidly.

Scientists and research groups in Japan have been conducting major experiments involving space-based solar power systems capable of transmitting electricity wirelessly using microwaves. Recent tests by Japan Space Systems (JSS) demonstrated successful wireless energy transmission technologies that could eventually support solar power collection from satellites in orbit.

Meanwhile, researchers at Caltech in the United States previously confirmed that a space-based prototype successfully directed detectable solar power from space toward Earth for the first time using the MAPLE experiment.

However, fact-checkers note that Japan has not yet launched a fully operational commercial system that continuously powers Earth directly from orbit, despite viral social media claims suggesting otherwise.

Disclaimer:

Current experiments represent important scientific breakthroughs, but large-scale space-to-Earth solar power systems are still under development and not yet commercially operational.