re: Be careful with the numbers.
"The solar flux on a given area of the Earth is pretty impressive, too, but it's a long way from actually being able to utilize it effectively."
I don't understand what you are saying.
Many solar power advocates make a big deal out of how much solar power falls on every square mile of the Earth each day. Unfortunately, actually making use of that total is another matter. Nobody is going to build a solid square mile of solar panels. The number of panels required to accumulate that amount of sunlight would cover a much larger area.
In the same way, even the best array of solar power satellites will use only a fraction of the total solar power available in that orbit.