A power beaming system includes a power beam transmission unit (102) to generate and transmit a high-flux power beam (106) toward a receiving unit (108) at a remote location. The receiving unit includes a photovoltaic array (128) having a defined perimeter shape, and the power beam transmission unit includes at least one vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) array (150), which has a plurality of VCSEL emitters (152). The power beam transmission unit also includes a projection lens apparatus (126) and a control system. The control system which comprises a controller (136C) is arranged to control a light output of the VCSEL array (150), which includes controllably enabling a selected portion of the plurality of VCSEL emitters corresponding to the defined perimeter shape of the photovoltaic array, and controllably diffusing light with a diffuser (130) from the VCSEL array to uniformly illuminate a projection surface of the projection lens apparatus.