While the clean tech sector has been making progress on Earth, perhaps it’s time for man to take a great clean tech leap by harnessing solar power in space.

PG&E seems to think the time is ripe, at least, as the Northern California utility announced on Monday that it is seeking approval for a power purchase agreement with Solaren.

Solaren is a company looking to harness solar power from Earth’s orbit. The obstacle, of course, is getting that energy back to Earth. Solaren plans to covert the energy into radio frequency energy and send it to a receiving station, which would then convert it back to electricity for consumers to use.

The other obvious obstacle is cost. PG&E seems to be confident in Solaren’s ability to affordably send solar panels into space, though it’ll be a long time before Solaren can prove itself, as the company projects its commercial operations to begin in 2016.

Additionally, Solaren is on its own–for now, at least. While PG&E has applied for a power purchase agreement, the utility will not pony up any money up front; instead, it will only buy power that Solaren delivers some 7 years from now.

If it does work, though, Solaren will have opened up the doors for more effective conversion of solar power, as the panels will be able to constantly soak up the sun’s energy without atmospheric interference.