SPS RECTENNA SYSTEM R. W. Andryczyk General Electric Company - Valley Forge, Pennsylvania This paper addresses the design, construction and cost of the SPS ground receiving rectifying antenna called the ''Rectenna”. An integrated ground system is deemed feasible if construction of the rectenna is broken up into a number of separate jobs. Each can be described in terms of machines, human resources, and material that would be needed. Automated production would play a major role. The total cost of the ground power segment is estimated at over $2 billion, of which two thirds would be the cost of constructing the rectenna. The rectenna consists of a number of microwave power collectors. Included are approximately 13 billion elements of the low-gain receiving antenna, about 10 Km in diameter, along with about the antenna's 7 billion rectifiers, medium voltage DC power collecting grid, DC/AC converters and high voltage AC power collecting grid. In principle, all of the elements for the rectenna system are well within the state of the art. The great challenge is to produce economically the huge quantities of components that would be required. This involves keeping the cost of finished components close to the cost of the materials while taking into account such factors as rectenna maintainability, angular alignment requirements, soil mechanics, and environmental conditions at the site.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==