Economics of Power Generation: Any power-satellite, photovoltaic or turbine, ground- launched or built from lunar material, would be capital-intensive. Therefore, like a nuclear system, a power satellite would need to operate in base-load service, nearly full-time, to pay back its construction cost. The 1975-76 competitive rates for baseload power are 1.5 to 1.7 cents (15 to 17 mills) per kilowatt- hour at the power plant. If SSPS power is to have major impact on the problems of energy resources and dependence, a way must be found to build and locate large numbers of SSPS plants (up to 20 to 40 per year of 5-Gw size) and the electricity rates at which they operate must be low enough so that they will achieve market penetration, being chosen for new construction in preference to alternative (coal or nuclear) plants. If those two conditions are not met, SSPS power can be no more than an exotic rarity, classed with
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