Well, you would split it up a bit, rather than bulldozing an ecology the size of Spain. Would probably be quicker to roll out than the space based version and there are grid scale storage technologies available which might be relatively expensive, but are still orders of magnitude cheaper than solving the same problem by going into orbit. In the long run I think orbital solar looks promising, but there is a lot more work left to do there than with implementing it at ground level.
Orbital solar starts to make sense when you need a collection area that's larger than what's feasible for Earth and currently Earth is not scarce as far as available surface area :)
It is, near cities where the energy has to be generated. And its hard to procure because of eminent domain fights, environmental impact statements and high costs.
Given we are in a world of 500 km underwater interconnects and synchronous grids that span up to eight time zones, I am not sure why you think electricity needs to be generated right next to cities.
Though, that said, existing urban rooftops are over a third of the required area to power the world, so you might as well stick some there while you are at it.
Transmitting electricity is quite a bit different from transmitting bytes. That's the main reason we are using Alternating Current rather than Direct Current to power virtually everything.
And I believe the opposite. Remember power generation also has to be delivered, so solar farms will want to be near cities. There's not a lot of room, it will take more land that the freeway system! And that took decades to seize the land through eminent domain.
