FIGURE 1 DESIGN CONCEPT FOR A SATELLITE SOLAR POWER STATION BASED ON PHOTOVOLTAIC CONVERSION The advantages resulting from solar energy conversion with the SSPS in synchronous orbit are as follows: 1) The amount of solar energy available in synchronous orbit ranges from 6 to 15 times that available in areas receiving copious sunshine on Earth. 2) The solar energy in orbit is available nearly continuously except for short periods around the equinoxes, at which time the satellite will be shadowed by the Earth for a maximum of 72 minutes a day. Averaged over a year, this shadowing results in only a 1% reduction of the energy that would be available if the SSPS were continuously exposed to sunlight. Furthermore, the shadowing will occur near midnight at the receiving antenna site, when power demands are lowest. Therefore, energy storage is unlikely to be required.
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