You may recall the concept, but you may not have realized that it would entail the creation of a major American industry, employing thousands of astronauts in geosynchronous orbit around the earth and many thousands more people on the ground. NASA, of course, has studied it in detail.
There’s even a pretty good scifi novel about the rigors of the orbital work on something similar. Not that we should expect the First Church of Environmentalism and their political cronies to support it. On that score, the greenie weenies are in bed with the oil & gas companies who would almost certainly oppose it as well.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Remember Waldo and Magic, Inc.? I think of good old Waldo when the ideas of beaming power are shining around.
I think Americans are going to have to become more like their elders of the Boulder Dam era before we’ll see solar power beamed to Earth. People are just too wimpy nowadays, too fearful of their own shadows. Or is it because of lost trust in corporations and government?
It opens a Pandora box of legal mayhem. What happens when a solar energy collector flies over, say, Saudi Arabia? Wouldn’t it deprave the Saudis of their portion of sunlight?