SRC-528

Comparative Analysis of Net Energy Balance of Satellite Power Systems (SPS) and Other Energy Systems; DOE/ER-0056; April 1980

R.R. Cirillo, B.S. Cho, M.R. Monarch and E.P. Levine, Argonne National Laboratory, Integrated Assessments and Policy Evaluations Group ·1980 · T3 government or agency report · XC02

Commissioned by U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research, Satellite Power System Project Division; Under Contract No. 31-109-ENG-38. Who paid for a study is recorded because it bears on how its conclusions should be read, not because it makes them wrong.

Identifiers: DOE/ER-0056 the identifier this document is registered under

Published claims resting on this source

CLM-1038 In 1980 the Department of Energy calculated that a silicon space solar satellite would take six years to pay back the energy that built it, four times longer than coal or nuclear, and that almost all of that was the energy cost of making the silicon cells; with gallium arsenide cells it was a little over a year.

Cite this

energyaperture.com/s/src-528

SRC-528 , recorded 2026-09-17.