achievement of the reduced total shipping costs is that transfer costs must be accounted for. Vital transport data, therefore, are a combination of the ratio of freight cost to total cost and the difference in transfer burdens at alternative sites. Availability of certain types of transportation or points of converging transport systems are exceptionally important factors. Santini has shown that water transport is a key geographical determinant for many heavy industries.15 The availability of raw materials is frequently a major locational factor. All manufacturing requires a supply of raw materials. Furthermore, raw materials are not equally distributed over the earth, but are localized in certain regions. The influence of raw materials as a location factor has declined in the last 50 years for several reasons. The development of a network of transportation systems has facilitated the movement of raw materials and, as manufacturing has become more complex, there is relatively less processing of basic raw materials by individual manufacturers.1 Santini’s work also illustrates the importance of water transport for those industries processing large volumes of raw materials.15 Another major factor is the availability of energy. The principal uses of energy are to generate heat and provide power for manufacturing. Fossil fuels are used to provide both heat and power by numerous methods. By comparison, technologies that utilize renewable resources such as hydropower and the proposed Satellite Power System are primarily designed to generate electricity. Therefore, while the fossil fuels provide diverse forms of energy for almost the entire spectrum of modern industry, significant electricity consumption is confined to a narrower range of industries. The availability and cost of electricity is of key importance to the aluminum, petroleum, iron and steel, chemical, paper, and several other industries. These are the industries whose location pattern is likely to be initially affected by the development of renewable resources and the subsequent expansion of electric generating capacity in the U.S. Another important energy consideration is the importance of electricity availability relative to other location factors such as labor, transportation costs and the availability of auxiliary resources. For example, conventional electric generating plants are dependent upon water for cooling. SPS promises to remove this constraint and could, as a consequence, indirectly affect the distribution of industry.
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