The CDEP has been designed to identify any major SPS problems and their magnitude, and determine whether these would foreclose the SPS option, or could be resolved through additional study, system design changes, or mitigation procedures. Integrated results of the CDEP study will provide information from which an informed decision to either terminate the program, or continue it in accordance with a defined option, can be made. Such a decision will have cost approximately $20 million. If no ''program stoppers” are identified in the CDEP (none have been identified to date) a Ground Based Exploratory Development Program (GBED) could succeed it if the appropriate policy decision is made. The seven to nine year GBED program would consist of ground based experiments and exploratory research investigating the reference system and alternative systems and subsystems. The GBED objective is to reduce uncertainty about SPS feasibility and viability to the point where an informed decision could be made regarding initiation of an even more intensive research and development program leading to prototype components, on-orbit testing, and verification of the required technology. The costs of the GBED program, which would start in 1981, have not yet been estimated but will exceed CDEP costs by at least an order of magnitude. V .6 Can energy self-sufficiency be arrived at through the SPS? Clearly, no single energy technology will solve our energy problem. However, the SPS, working in concert with a mix of other systems, could make us less reliant on non-renewable energy sources and help the U.S. become more energy self-sufficient. 65 In 1976, the U.S. consumed 74 quadrillion Btu (1 quadrillion = 1000 trillion), or the Btu equivalent value in petroleum (including oil and gasoline), coal, electricity, and other energy forms. Fortyseven percent of all energy consumed was supplied by petroleum; 27% by natural gas; about 19% by coal; hydropower and nuclear energy supplied about 4% and 3% respectively. Although energy consumption is distributed more or less evenly by the four main end use energy sectors, energy supplies vary widely by end use sector.$6 65The British thermal unit, Btu, is used as a measure of energy. One Btu = the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit at standard atmospheric conditions . 66Energy Information Handbook, Congressional Research Service; prepared for the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power, July 1977.
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