The year is 2050, and as the sun sets, the night’s very first constellations emerge in ideal rows. These amber-glowing varieties aren’t stars at all; they’re satellite clusters, collecting the day’s last rays before beaming their power back to Earth.

If it checks out like sci-fi, that’s since it began that method. Called space-based solar energy (SBSP), the idea included plainly in the techno-utopian creativities of 20th-century visionaries and authors. For years, it was dismissed– a pie in the sky proposition.

Ben Turner is a U.K. based author and editor at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, tech and environment modification. He finished from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a reporter. When he’s not composing, Ben takes pleasure in checking out literature, playing the guitar and awkward himself with chess.