D. Summary Remarks Preliminary SPS cost and economic analyses indicate the following: 1. The SPS appears to be an economically viable electrical power generation system for the early 2000 time period. The cost to produce electricity is 29 to 115 milIs/kWh based on a 15-percent rate of return on capital investment and a 0.92 plant capacity factor. The COE based on nominal system characteristics (weight, efficiencies, transportation, etc.) is 50 to 60 mil 1s/kWh. These costs are in the competitive range with the 28 to 121 milIs/kWh for other advanced systems of current interest and, at the lowest values, compete with conventional coal and nuclear costs (15 to 29 mills/kWh). 2. The highest cost component in the SPS concepts investigated is the solar cell blankets, comprising up to 81 percent of the SPS capital cost. Figure XI-10 shows this relationship together with the relative cost contribution of the other components. 3. DDT&E costs represent a substantial investment (up to $50 billion); however, when this cost is amortized over the 30-year implementation period (112 power stations), the amortization cost is only 2 percent of the COE. 4. SPS 0&M costs are 2 to 7 milIs/kWh, which do not appear excessive based on initial estimates. 5. Concept 3 (truss structure, LEO construction, electric COTV) results in the lowest cost design; however, further analysis is required because of the very preliminary nature of this study. 6. The assumptions used in the "nominal" cases (50 to 60 mills/ kWh) are worthy of mention because they represent a set of assumptions that are believed to be attainable and do not represent any extreme breakthroughs in technology. For instance, the silicon solar cell for this nominal design case was 10.4 percent efficient at the operating temperature of 100° C. The cost of the array was $300/kW (ERDA goals: $500/kW in 1985 and $100 to $300/kW in the year 2000)1 and the basic cell was 4 mils thick. The total system end- to-end efficiency was 5.4 percent, which represented a total satellite weight of 84 000 metric tons. The transportation cost used was $164/kg to GEO compared to the projected current Shuttle cost of $550/kg to LEO. Appendix A provides a more detail discussion of terrestrial solar power systems. Appendix B provides a description of the methodology utilized for SPS cost sensitivity analysis and discussions of preliminary results. Total costs given in Appendix B should not be compared with the costs given in the text of Section XI since the latter is based on specific design concepts, whereas the Appendix B gives generalized results that indicate parametric trends only.
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