Where every unit goes. How the routes compare.
All three practical scenario routes start with the same collector and the same incident sunlight. Bars show a common input of 100 kWh; the current power controls set each conversion ratio.
Current geometry: 1.5 m launch beam, 8 m receiver, 12,000 km range, 0.5 µrad per-axis pointing jitter. The collector efficiency of 32% is an input assumption, not a commercial-panel benchmark.
What-if controls update the same scenario. Receiver diameter is capped at 30 m. These are assumptions to explore, not promises about hardware.
Sunlight not converted to electricity
Laser conversion losses
Launch / relay optics losses
Assumed path absorption / scatter
Light outside the receiver
Receiver conversion losses
Useful receiver electricity
Unrounded input = all listed destinations. Numerical balance error: 1.5e-11 W. Rounded labels may not total exactly 100 kWh.
Direct electricity and local storage require the source to be at the load or connected electrically. A remote laser link serves a different location. This table compares energy conversions; it does not make their range, mass, reliability or infrastructure equivalent.
Conventional generator context: a different energy input
For fuel-based generation, efficiency uses thermal fuel input, not incident sunlight or emitted laser light. Calculating 3412 Btu/kWh divided by the EIA’s 2025 tested heat rates gives approximately 45.3% for natural-gas combined cycle (7535 Btu/kWh), 34.0% for coal steam (10040), and 32.7% for nuclear steam (10443). These are capacity-weighted full-load test figures, not annual operating efficiencies or delivered grid electricity.
EIA Electric Power Annual, Table 8.2 · 2025 data, released 21 October 2026 ↗. These values give scale, but cannot establish a Qalice advantage across unlike energy sources. Qalice has no measured hardware efficiency dataset yet.
Why quantum math does not remove the conversion losses
A photon carries E = hc/λ. For the selected wavelength, E = 1.867e-19 J. The modeled launched and captured photon rates are 6.862e+22 /s and 1.153e+22 /s, before receiver conversion.
Photons that miss the receiver still carry energy. Conversion losses may become heat or leave through other channels. The ledger conserves energy; useful electrical power still decreases. Qalice’s conditional-scattering model studies quantum states and routing. It does not supply an energy-gain multiplier or evidence of a lossless power link.
Model equations, assumptions & research priorities
For an ideal Gaussian beam, w₀ = launch diameter/2, θ = λ/(πw₀), and w²(R) = w₀² + (θR)². Zero-mean Gaussian pointing jitter with per-axis angular standard deviation σθ gives the time-averaged envelope w̄² = w² + 4(Rσθ)². For a centered circular receiver of radius a, captured fraction = 1 − exp(−2a²/w̄²).
The launch diameter is an intensity 1/e² diameter, not a hard telescope aperture. The model assumes an ideal Gaussian profile (M² = 1), no static pointing bias or aperture truncation, and the declared combined optical efficiency. It omits non-Gaussian structure, time-correlated pointing, turbulence, wavefront error, receiver incidence angles, tracking availability and component temperature dependence. The jitter result is an average, not a minimum-power guarantee.
Newport: Gaussian beam optics · Khwaja & Reza: finite-aperture Gaussian transmission · DOE: photovoltaic conversion efficiency.
To reduce losses, measure electrical-to-optical efficiency, beam profile and pointing statistics, optical throughput and receiver efficiency at the actual wavelength, flux and temperature. Compare receiver sizing and tracking under matched conditions. Use those measured inputs before claiming an improvement over conventional delivery.
Research model only. Outputs are not a mission design, mineral composition estimate, financial valuation, navigation solution, or operational safety case. NASA/JPL supplies object and orbital context; Qalice performs the optical-energy calculations.
