1978 DOE SPS Economic Demographic Issues

of electric outputs will be the prime determinants of the impact that SPS may have on the future distribution of economic activity and society. First, any SPS-effected relocation of industry and population will depend upon where the large microwave receiving and electric distribution facilities that are required for the envisioned 5-GW satellites are sited. Using the existing U.S. standard for microwave radiation exposure (10 mW/cm2), each elliptical rectenna would cover approximately 132 km2. Full deployment of a 60-satellite (300-GW capacity) system, with a separate rectenna for each satellite, would therefore require approximately 7900 km2, or about 0.09% of the total U.S. land area devoted to rectenna sites. Two preliminary siting studies indicate that the rectennae would need to be located in rural areas and one of these studies indicates that rectennae may need to be clustered in undeveloped regions to optimize the avoidance of densely populated areas, with the availability of relatively cheap land and proximity to load centers or utility tie points. Second, the cost of transmitting the generated electricity is a critical consideration. By the time SPS becomes operational, it may not be economically feasible to transmit the power over long distances from rural rectennae sites through the grid to existing manufacturing centers. If this is the case, the total cost of rectennae siting will include redistributing a portion of the load and the conversion of existing land-uses, as well as construction of the rectenna consisting of land acquisition, preparation of the site, transport of materials, and assembly of the elements. On the other hand, it may be feasible to transmit electricity over long distances, but this will probably require substantial renovation of the existing distribution system in addition to annual operating costs and design, development, test, and evaluation (DDT&E) costs of SPS. There are several pricing strategies that can be applied to cover the costs of developing SPS electricity. They include: average cost pricing, capacity-only pricing, peak and off-peak pricing, energy-only pricing, and marginal cost pricing. Average and marginal cost pricing are particularly important in considering industrial location incentives that may develop. Based on the review of literature in Secs. 2 and 3, and the identification in Sec. 4 of rectennae siting and electricity pricing as the prime determinants of effects SPS may have on industrial and population relocation, Sec. 5 specifies short-term assessments that should be undertaken in FY 1979, as well as some long-term research needs for FY 1980 and beyond. The shortterm assessments are needed to first build an arsenal of tools and understanding

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