SRC-512

Satellite Power System (SPS) Mapping of Exclusion Areas For Rectenna Sites; HCP/R-4024-10; October 1978

Commissioned by U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research, Satellite Power System Project Office; Under Contract No. EG-77-C-01-4024. 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-1105 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.
• 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.

Cite this