of a 60 satellite (300-GW capacity) system would therefore require approximately 7900 km2, or about 0.09% of the total U.S. land area devoted to rectenna sites.3 Two preliminary siting studies4’5 indicate that the rectennae would need to be located in rural areas and one of these studies indicates that the rectennae may need to be clustered to optimize the avoidance of densely populated areas, with the availability of relatively cheap land and proximity to load centers or utility tie points. Regardless of what secondary siting criteria are included, the primary need to diffuse microwave reception for safety means that rectenna sites will be located in rural areas and they may be clustered in presently underdeveloped regions. Hence, the costs for facilities to transport electricity from the rectenna sites to existing loads or the costs of relocating loads nearer the rectennae will have to be absorbed. All of the questions relating to SPS- effected relocations hinge on the trade-offs between these two basically different options. In this regard, there are two issues that need further study. First, what are the trade-offs between distributing the capital costs of transmission to the user through electricity rates (average cost pricing) or distributing these costs to society through taxes (marginal cost pricing)? Some other pricing options worthy of study include peak load and off-peak pricing. Second, what effect would implementation of these options have on the spatial distribution of industry and population? The cost of transmitting SPS-generated electricity to industrial load centers is central to the concerns of this white paper. However, it may not be economically feasible to transmit the power over long distances from rural rectenna 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, conversion of existing land-uses, and construction of the rectenna consisting of land acquisition, preparation of the site, transport of materials, and assembly of the elements. An important policy question is whether the mere availability of SPS-generated electricity will provide sufficient incentive for firms to absorb the costs to move to regions containing SPS sites. Will there be some period of the day (year) in which it will pay to charge very little for SPS electricity to encourage its use? It should be noted that this is how the Bonneville Power Authority attracted aluminum manufacturing to the
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