Value chain · CLM-1105
In plain terms
The first look, in 1978, used a coarser grid and a bigger site than the 1980 study, ruled out half to five-sixths of the country depending on how many rules were applied, and declined to name sites; three million acres is a small fraction of America but a tenth of its cities.
The claim as recorded
The programme's 1978 exclusion mapping assumed "60 satellite-rectenna pairs" with "approximately 50,000 acres of land per site", "totalling approximately 3 million acres", mapped "36 variables with the potential to exclude the rectenna" on a grid where "Each grid square was 26 km on a side", and found that under its least restrictive combination "approximately 50% of the United States was excluded as potential sites", rising to "73%" and "83%" under its eighth and ninth summary maps; it offered "no firm conclusions" on sites, warned that "The conclusion that a rectenna could be located in any of these" eligible areas "is clearly not warranted", and put the land in scale: "3 million acres of land represents less than 0.2% of the total land area of the United States" while "60 rectenna sites would represent almost 9% of the total" land in urban use in 1969 (35 million acres).
Evidence behind this: T3-the first national exclusion mapping for the programme, by its authors' account "certainly not definitive".
Scope and limits
A 26 km GRID FOUR TIMES COARSER IN AREA THAN THE 1980 STUDY'S 13 km CELLS, A 50,000-ACRE SITE THAT THE 1980 STUDY REVISED TO 38,000, AND NO VALIDATION SAMPLE; superseded in method by SRC-565. The three percentages are for three of eleven summary maps and the study does not say which is right.
What it assumes
The 1978 site of 50,000 acres (202 km2), which the 1980 study reduced to 38,000.
Where it comes from
PDF 6 / printed v, normalised: "Under the current SPS program, 60 satellite-rectenna pairs would be developed"; "the rectenna would require the dedication of approximately 50,000 acres of land per site"; "60 sites of 50,000 acres each, totalling approximately 3 million acres, will be required"; raw: "36 variables with the potential to exclude the rectenna were mapped"; raw: "Each grid square was 26 km on a side"; normalised: "approximately 50% of the United States was excluded as potential sites", "excluding 73% of the United States"; raw: "excluding 83%"; normalised: "this report is certainly not definitive with respect to siting". PDF 105 / printed 99, normalised: "no firm conclusions are offered by the Rice University team regarding potential sites"; "The conclusion that a rectenna could be located in any of these" "eligible" areas is clearly not warranted; "3 million acres of land represents less than 0.2% of the total land area of the United States"; raw: "urban land uses were determined to utilize 35 million acres"; raw: "60 rectenna sites would represent almost 9% of the total" land area devoted to urban uses in 1969. Arithmetic on the stated figures: 3 million / 35 million = 8.6 per cent; 3 million acres = 12,140 km2 against about 7.7 million km2 of contiguous land, 0.16 per cent.
Basis: acres per site; 26 km grid squares; per cent of the United States excluded
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-007 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1105
CLM-1105, Energy Aperture, as of 1978-10.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.