II. LAND SURVEYS A. Selection Criteria Initially, all rectennas were to be located on land. Data indicate the percentage of total electric power used in a region [2] closely correlates to the percentage of the national population in that region [3]. Figure 2 shows a breakout of the nine regions in the U.S. and Figure 3 shows a correlation between electric power use and population in these regions. Further inspection indicates that regions with large percentages of the U.S. population often have little land available for rectenna placement, since 65 percent of the U.S. population lives east of the Mississippi River on 29 percent of the land [4] (anduses 65 percent of the total U.S. electrical power). Thus, rectenna density on land could not correspond to electrical energy usage without major disruptive impacts. Seventy-one percent of the U.S. land is west of the Mississippi River with only 35 percent of the population occupying it. Thus, there is room for the majority of the 120 rectennas to be placed in the western U.S., especially in the Mountain, Western North Central, and Western South Central states. However, electrical demand in most areas of these regions is small, and the losses associated with power transmission over great distances is generally large enough to make it undesirable to put the majority of the rectennas in these sparsely populated areas. Therefore, a compromise strategy which approaches uniform rectenna distribution was initiated. Under this strategy an attempt would be made to put two rectenna sites in each state (excepting Alaska) to identify a total of up to 98 sites. Then the remaining 22 or more sites would be located where possible on land or off-shore to achieve a better distribution with respect to demand. Next, certain criteria had to be identified to quantify the meaning of a good potential land site. These criteria had to take into account such questions as where people live and how the land is used. The following criteria have been identified for site selection: 1. Minimum impact on land intensively used [5] (e.g., cropland, urban areas, etc.). 2. Minimum impact on population [6]. 3. Minimum impact on transportation [7, 8, 9].
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