Ben congrats on using some novel thinking to try to analyse the idea of solar, but it might also reveal a lack of research.

Of course putting panels in space is hardly practical, for a multitude of reasons, at least with current technology.

But the way we define solar energy gives away how we think of it.
The correct definition is that it is the only source of energy.
All other forms of practical energy are derived from it.
None are renewable.
When we "generate" power from fuel, we are actually taking something which took millions of years to create, from the energy of the sun, and extracting a little of that energy back out.
By that, we are de-creating many things made by the energy of the sun.
So we can think of Earth as a kind of battery, trickle charged by the energy of the sun over millions of years, then significantly discharged by humanity becoming industrial, in 150 years flat.
When we talk about how much energy humanity needs, it makes more sense to use units of Watts (Joules per second).
Our current requirement is around 17 TerraWatts.
We can get that in theory, using current technology by an area much less than the Sahara desert alone.
There is currently several countries worth of Bitcoin proof-of-work token mining going on.
A significant, undisclosed amount of that is solar powered.
But we know the business case for solar powered mining is strongest, in most scenarios.
The real reason we have not seen solar yet, is that it has to be free for all people, otherwise there has to be gross inequality, in order to for a profit driven business model to function.
If only part of the Earth is solar powered, then it can’t be for 24 hrs, so pretty useless, it has to be all or nothing for all people, just like vaccines.
That is only possible in a non profit world, and as yet we are obviously still profit driven.
Free money may be the catalyst that takes us to the non profit world needed, in my opinion.
The Banks could declare tomorrow that all human debt is actually an energy debt, owed to the planet, which can only be paid back down by using the energy of the sun to undo most of the harm done by discharging the battery of Earth, then issue free money as needed to get the job underway.
As soon as any installation gets to the point that it can be self funded by solar powered proof of work tokens, then it no longer needs external funding, so can continue to expand on its own revenue generated from the sun.
All revenue of the future could very easily become like that.
Bitcoin then fits in by becoming the reference for minting all tokens thereafter, guaranteed by the energy of the sun.
Then we will be functioning in a similar way as plants, absorbing energy from the sun, converting that to forms useful to our work of adding value to the planet. So instead of constantly de-creating, we will be creating, constantly adding positively to the work that the sun does via plants already, to sustain all life on Earth.

We might see an almost spiritual dimension there, fledgling humanity requiring, and living from a kind of placenta of our species, the stored energy of Mother Earth, with us becoming a mature species when we are forced to stop squabbling, competing, for profit, to begin using the ambient energy of the sun.

After that, superconducting electricity lines, buildings bristling with architectural sun collection features, solar collector concentration sites to burn toxic waste including even vapours, pipelines carrying hydrogen manufactured entirely from solar, fully air conditioned buildings in the hottest of places, vaccines that actually work, and even immortality research, all become routinely possible.

Quite a different world than the one we might be seeing the end of about now…