Several configurations were investigated; however, the option presented here is a system where three beams, each providing 1670 MW, are transmitted from three 10 dB truncated gaussian tapers (each of radius 0.593 km). The consequent system parameters are summarised in Table 1 but it is noted that the safety areas (zone 1 and zone 2) for each beam are decreased by 58% and 26% respectively. The rectenna area for a single beam decreases by 30% although the total reception area for the 5000 MW grid input is doubled. The cost for each satellite is at least double present estimates, mainly due to the increase in the spacetenna. It is feasible to reduce the rectenna size by a further factor of 2 by reducing the transmission efficiency. This leads to either an increase in solar array size or a decrease in the overall system level of 5000 MW. The costs are significantly increased for the former case but marginally reduced in the latter case and do not appear viable at this time. It is noted that recent work on solid state de - rf conversion solar power satellites indicate negligible change to overall systems design with the introduction of a multiple beam concept, as discussed above. Finally, although the impact on costs for a klystron concept solar power satellite is high, the concept significantly reduces ground area use for rectenna sites and substantially reduces the impact on land utilisation outside of the rectenna. This could have significant implications for the future implementation of solar power satellites in high density population/arable land areas, particularly in Western Europe. Future analysis is planned to optimise fully the system design and establish the economic viability of the concept particularly for solid state microwave transmitter solar power satellites.
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