If the solar terrestrial approach is considered for use as a supplementary or peak load electricity source, it may be possible to eliminate the capital costs of storage. In the example considered here, the removal of the storage component would reduce the direct capital costs by $122 per kW and the total capital costs, including indirect charges and interest, by $174/kW or approximately 10 percent of the projected cost of $l,785/kW. This capital cost reduction would result in an energy cost saving of approximately 6 mills/kWh holding all other assumptions constant. The delivered energy cost would therefore be about 58 mills/kWh rather than 64 mills/kWh. This comparison may not be altogether valid, however, since there would probably be a reduction in load factor—and consequent increase in energy cost—associated with the removal of the storage capacity. Perhaps more important than the savings in costs that could be achieved by removing the storage capability is the change in the frame of reference for comparison. While the projected energy costs for this approach are clearly not yet competitive for baseload power generation, they may well already approach the much higher costs typically associated with peak load generating systems. The ability to build optimum or near optimum solar generation plants in the 100-300 MWe capacity range should afford some opportunity for potential savings in distribution costs. Preliminary design parameters for most other systems under consideration indicate capacities of 1,000 MWe or more per plant while many currently proposed fossil and nuclear plants are in the 3,000-5,000 MWe range. These much larger plants may, depending on location and existing unused network capacity, require substantial additional capital costs for distribution which are not considered in this analysis. It has been suggested that distribution and transmission capital costs make up as much as one-half the total capital costs of delivered electrical energy. This would imply that the capital costs of distribution and transmission equal the costs of power generation which are currently about $ 500/kWe. Under the assumptions used in this analysis the energy cost impact of each $100 in capital costs is approximately 5.4 mills/kWh, at 0.33 load
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