That would be the effect of inverse-square spreading of undirected radiation. The answer is to channel it. We do that with electric power lines, easily, and have for many decades. People think we can do that with laser beams, and we can, but the consequences of a mishap are severe. And there are power losses from absorption and scattering. Such systems are inherently weapons. But you are not wrong about needing great amounts of energy, though the objective would be not to lose much of it in the transmission process. I think the transmission efficiency of our power grid is about 90% (I'm not sure if that includes transformer efficiency to step voltage up and down).
Even in space, I believe, you get less energy the more the distance traveled.
So to move energy great distances requires great amounts of energy
That would be the effect of inverse-square spreading of undirected radiation. The answer is to channel it. We do that with electric power lines, easily, and have for many decades. People think we can do that with laser beams, and we can, but the consequences of a mishap are severe. And there are power losses from absorption and scattering. Such systems are inherently weapons. But you are not wrong about needing great amounts of energy, though the objective would be not to lose much of it in the transmission process. I think the transmission efficiency of our power grid is about 90% (I'm not sure if that includes transformer efficiency to step voltage up and down).