plants are in operation, the required cost with a 5% discount rate would be 24.6 mills/kWh; or 32.2 with a 7.5% rate; 41.8 with a 10% rate; and 70.5 with a 15% rate. The impact of the suggested reduction in DDT&E costs is generally much smaller than the impact of changes in the discount rate. Using the 7.5% rate proposed by ECON, for example, would result in a savings of only 5.2 mills/kWh in the year 2010 (32.8 mills/kWh to recover the full $44.2 billion in DDT&E vs. 32.6 mills to recover the reduced $20.6 billion DDT&E). By the year 2020 the difference is even smaller at 2.3 mills/kWh (32.2 mills with larger DDT&E vs. 29.6 with the smaller amount.) At higher discount rates the differences between the larger and smaller DDT&E estimates are somewhat larger but still much smaller than the differences attributable to changes in the discount rate. For example, the required charge with a 10% discount rate is 49.3 mills in 2010 with the larger DDT&E estimate and 41.9 mills with the smaller one. The comparable figures for 2020 are 41.6 and 37.7 mills/kWh. To summarize, this extension of the ECON analysis suggests that: (1) The choice of discount rate has a significant impact on required energy charges even without considering DDT&E recovery. (2) When the recovery of DDT&E costs of proposed magnitudes is also considered the differences in unit costs associated with different discount rates become even more dramatic. (3) Due to the order of magnitude and long lead time associated with DDT&E costs, it appears that the inclusion or exclusion of ''support" (HLLV) DDT&E costs has a measurable impact, but one that is distinctly smaller than the impact of moderate changes in the discount rate. The relative effects of discount rate and/or DDT&E changes are shown in graphic form in Exhibit 27 for the year 2025. (109 5-Gigawatt satellites in operation.) 6. Major Components of Capital Cost The major components of capital cost as noted in equation (7) in Exhibit 22 are: solar collection system, transportation, assembly, and
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