The revenues obtained from any space beamed power program will depend on the price that this energy can be sold to an end user. As discussed in Chapter 2, the average current price of energy supplied to electricity grids today is: $0.05 per kWh - Baseload $0.22 per kWh - Peakload The price of energy will dictate which supplies the energy companies will utilize for a given demand (time of day). Due to the high capital costs of large space to earth solar power satellites, they should be utilized as fully as possible. This will mean supplying baseload power demand, which will generate maximum cash inflow to the project. Demonstrations 1 and 2 The first and second space to earth space solar power demonstrations will be technology demonstration and validation missions. These will not be revenue generating ventures but will provide the business confidence needed for further investment in energy generation from space beamed power. Any useful energy produced by demonstration 2 will be provided free of charge for other institutions to provide application demonstrations for uses of space beamed power, such as remote African villages for example. Financial Viability Analysis for Different Sizes of Space Solar Power Satellites The first financial analysis performed for different size space solar power satellites was to compare the required satellite output in millions of kWhrs to the grid vs. satellite size for the satellite system to become viable. This gives values for the satellite replacement costs in kWhr, and US dollars at current energy costs of $0.05 per kWh. Example results are shown in Tables 11.15 and 11.16 below. Table 11.15 Example of Satellite Repleacement Cost for Viable Operation for 0% Return on Invested Canital
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