VI. ENERGY BALANCE It is the purpose of this section of the report to analyze the energy requirements for the Solar Satellite Power Station (SSPS) concept as described by ECON (Ref. All). Although at least two energy balance analyses of the SSPS have been made, they appear to suffer from two shortcomings. In both cases, ECON and JSC (Ref. A13), the energy requirements calculated are admittedly only partial, dealing with some but not all of the components of the SSPS system. In none of the available references were any comparisons made as to the energy requirements of alternative systems calculated on a comparable basis. This section attempts to do so. In addition, a brief summary of the basic material resources required for the SSPS program is presented. 1. Introduction In September 1975, Development Sciences, Inc., under a contract to the Department of Interior, published "A Study to Develop Energy Estimates of Merit for Selected Fuel Technologies," (DSI 038). This document uses a new technique for energy requirements analysis, based in part on traditional process energy analysis and in part on input-output analysis. The key result of this technique is an external energy subsidy estimate which identifies the amount of energy withdrawn from the economy at large to produce a unit amount (1,000 Btu) of energy from a specified source. In this analysis, the external energy subsidy is distinguished from the unused or wasted portion of original fuel which is identified as "in situ resource affected." One of the advantages of the technique used by Development Sciences is that it provides a base for comparing the SSPS to existing and other proposed terrestrial electrical generation technologies. It also has the virtue of consistency and generality in that it operates with a 357-sector analysis of the economy and the energy requirements associated with a dollar of output from each sector. Underlying the methodology used by DSI is a matrix which displays
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