Researchers looking to develop solar power in space are scheduled to announce Friday that a project in Hawai'i has demonstrated the ability to wirelessly transmit power.

The National Space Society said it and Managed Energy Technologies LLC will announce the breakthrough during a Friday news conference at the National Press Club in Washington.

It said the project demonstrated power transmission between two islands in Hawai'i that are 148 kilometers apart, or more than the distance from the surface of the Earth to the boundary of space.

The project will also be featured during a Discovery Channel broadcast, Discovery Project Earth, which focuses on ideas to solve global climate change as well as sustainable energy sources.

Proponents of the idea say space-based solar power could one day provide a clean and constant source of power by collecting it with large satellites that would beam it down to earth.