Would it be possible to create a system of massive orbiting solar shields?

Over the past few years I have read a lot of articles about a system of solar panels orbiting earth for energy production.<br><br>The basic idea being we gather a large amount of solar energy before it hits our atmosphere, and relay it down as microwaves beams to the earth for collection. <br><br>I was wondering, would it be possible to instead collect energy from the sun but not send it to the earth, essentially blocking the sun's energy/lux from ever reaching the earth and shielding us from the sun.<br><br>How would this affect the environment, and is there any upper limit to the amount of solar energy we can block before we affect the orbit of the solar shades?<br><br>Is it even feasible to do this with our current understanding of spacecraft and satellite technology?<br><br>Sorry if this has been asked before!<br><br>TLDR: To what extent could we create a network of orbiting solar shields to block/dampen the energy from the sun before it hits our atmosphere, given our current technology and understanding of space exploration?<br><br>EDIT: thank you all for your input, some very interesting ideas. I am definitely going to look into it more now.