SRC-409

Satellite Power Systems Concept Development and Evaluation Program: Program Assessment Report, Statement of Findings. DOE/ER-0085

Commissioned by US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research, Solar Power Satellite Project Division; DOE/NASA joint programme; contract AI01-79ER10035. Who paid for a study is recorded because it bears on how its conclusions should be read, not because it makes them wrong.

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-0076 The 1980 programme report says the three-year programme was due to end in 1980, that the heating experiments still needed data to confirm them, and names no follow-on experiment. It offers its findings as a basis for a policy decision rather than making one.
• CLM-1410 US government studies around 1980 thought crops might be grown under a receiving station, because its mesh lets most sunlight through and warms the ground only slightly. They also said it would make farming and repairs harder, needed design changes and had not been studied properly. One later survey suggested raising the station and screening the ground from microwaves, or building greenhouses under it.
• CLM-1446 The 1977-80 US government programme did not decide for or against power satellites. It said questions on technology, environment and cost were still open, that a satellite would cost more to build, and less predictably, than conventional power stations, but that the range of its electricity costs was similar to that of other new options of the time, fusion and solar cells. A separate 1981 review for the US Congress said too little was known to decide, that the basic technologies had been shown to be feasible except lasers, and that, except perhaps for fusion, the up-front cost would be much higher than for other large power stations.

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