[xeyownt]

Geez. What a terrible idea. It will:

- Harm the only true source of renewable energy we have.

- Waste gazillion of fossil fuel to send that mess in the sky.

- very likely increase space pollution around Earth and be impossible to clean up.

[DennisP]

- A 2% increase in panel efficiency would compensate for that. Most people say panel efficiency isn't a big factor in solar pricing anyway.

- The only near-term way to do this affordably would be on Starship, and at scale they're planning to fuel that with methane made from ambient CO2, for net-zero emissions

- The L1 point is about a million miles from Earth, so space junk is not an issue at all

[antisthenes]

Also:

- Not going to last any significant amount of time, due to the solar sail effect. Solar wind will simply blow them out of the stable L1 orbit in a few decades at most, maybe a few years

- Let people emit more CO2, because "the problem is solved" in the short term, and when it doesn't work and that 2% of sunlight comes back, it'll exacerbate the problem.