implementation of this system would allow time and provide motivation for them to be worked out. The benefits of the first few high capacity hydropower plants to their host countries would rapidly overcome the starting friction and development will continue rapidly. The precedents set by telecommunications will be useful in guiding the first few projects. • Good use can be made of research the military has sponsored on remote power transmission - just as happened with the ‘atoms for peace' programme which gave rise to the nuclear industry in the 1950s. • NASA, DoE, DoD and the national academies of science and engineering have shown interest in space power satellites (SPS), which use similar technology to a space transmission system (STS) but are somewhat more advanced. STS should be of interest as something more near term than SPS which demonstrates parts of the technology and indeed constructs part of the system (the rectennas) which can later be used for SPS. Exploring an STS Programme Due to the large-scale, interdisciplinary nature and international scope of STS, a variety of organizations would be involved. In order actually to develop and implement the system, the involvement of the United States, or the Soviet Union, or some association of industrialized nations such as the European Community would be essential. Obviously, those American organizations which have participated in SPS related work in the past should be a part of any STS programme due to the technical commonality. The participation of Japan is also desirable due to the combination of its technological prowess with its ever expanding demand for imported energy. Three international organizations immediately come to mind as facilitators of the contact between the industrialized and less developed countries: • the uno's ‘Commission for Large Power Systems'; • the World Energy Conference; • the International Conference on Large High Voltage Electric Systems (often known by its French acronym of cigre). In addition, the participation of organizations such as cern and euratom which have had extensive experience with internationally financed engineering projects is desirable. The priorities for initial STS implementation must be determined. Should a prototype plant of 100 MW capacity or so be built first, or should the initial demonstration be on a commercial scale of 1,000 to 5,000 MW? Which countries should participate in the first project? Should power be produced in a remote area of an industrialized country and transported by STS farther than it is economical with conventional transmission technology (such as northern Quebec to the United States, or Siberia to European Russia) or should one of the less developed countries of the world participate in the initial demonstration? Since the distance separating generator and consumption centre is not important in STS, a successful initial demonstration will motivate worldwide participation in the system. Once this is achieved, the wide geographic distribution of loads will even out daily and seasonal load variations so that a given generating capacity can serve a greater number of end users than is possible in a geographically localized system.
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