Japan’s space agency is planning to construct a solar power station in space and use it to beam energy down to Earth using lasers. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) hopes that the ambitious plans will help ease the country’s energy problems as well as providing a solution for global warming.

A select group of companies and researchers have been given the task of designing and building the Space Solar Power System (SSPS.

The plan is to create a 2-mile-wide array of photovoltaic panels, like the solar panels used on Earth, and place it in a geostationary orbit. Solar rays are at least five times as powerful in space as they are at ground level, allowing the huge panels to gather vast quantities of energy.

A report by researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said: "Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming. The sun's rays abound in space."

Once collected, the solar energy would be beamed down to a substation on Earth, using laser beams or microwaves.

A test version of the orbital solar panels is expected to be launched in 2020. The final version should be in space in 2030, and will create about one gigawatt of energy – the equivalent of a mid-sized nuclear power plant.