Not the same thing. Sunlight converted to electricity doesn't have enough energy density to make this "fuel" viable......... EVER.
You might want to let Airbus know then that they are wasting their time.
Zephyr ? unmanned aircraft system UAS
the problem with that is LEO satellites are getting much cheaper every month as are the launch costs, to the point SpaceX are already looking to launch their own LEO constellation for net connectivity (the way they are heading is looking like they could put up enough in 2 launches to cover the planet).
in reality, the number of planes/blimps/whatever to do this job would simply be far to expensive and have too high a running costs for anything practical.
Whilst you are correct that launch costs are still declining rapidly. Its no where close to being cheaper, especially when you take the ground segment into account. Fundamentally its far harder to address most of the intended applications from 300+KM altitude than from 10-25KM in the stratosphere