1. Favorable meteorological location; 2. Relatively unpopulated region; and 3. Within a few hundered miles of the using city. A location in the desert in the Southwest was identified, primarily based on its being a relatively unpopulated area from the “man, animal, and bird” points of view. In the time period 1990 to 2000, when the system would be operational, a power distribution network would exist (e.g., superconducting underground power cables), such that facilities having surplus capabilities for power generation could assist in the supply of the peak need for user areas in parts of the country remote from the power source. Although detailed economic studies may indicate differently, the efficiencies are so very high and the RFI, due to underground power transmission, is so very low that their development in large magnitude appears highly probable. There is not much difference in overall efficiency (less than 3%) for a particular user site in the continental United States to receive power beamed relatively locally compared to its being beamed to a near optimum ground site and then transferred by superconducting ground cable to the user site. Favorable meteorological locations are not as meaningful to site selection because most “favorable meteorological locations” exhibit high rainfall rates, even for the low probabilities of occurrence and unscheduled “brown outs” are considered sufficiently undesirable to favor the lower frequencies. The 3.3-GHz frequency choice gives low attenuation, even at high precipitation rates, so weather will not be a vital factor in ground location. Ground winds, ice, sand and, for off-shore installations, waves will play a more vital role in site selection when detailed design analyses of ground sites and their equipment are undertaken. With respect to the “relatively unpopulated region” guideline, it appears now that national and international land utilization studies, based on projected Earth resources data, may well shed different light on the subject. On the one hand, those areas that are not utilized currently, simply because they do not have, the requisite natural water, may be highly productive if supplied with water by one of several projected means. On the other hand, the simple existence of an SSPS ground station, depending on how its power sales are regulated, may result in a focusing of industry near or even beneath the site. In-depth study of effects on local bird population will be essential to understand whether birds will avoid or be attracted by the microwave beam, and if they are attracted by its warming effect, will they become an unacceptable nuisance: e.g., a low-temperature ambient environment may be such that the beam attracts; conversely a high-temperature ambient environment may lead to avoidance by birds. These study results may therefore become particularly significant in site-selection criteria. In summary, ground site selection criteria will be greatly influenced by results of projected Earth resource studies and by social and political considerations. Current and projected bird population at the site could be major factors in site selection. The more narrow SSPS system aspects of site selection lend themselves to relatively simple and known analysis techniques.
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