form. The annual cost, C, to a utility of operating a rectenna can be expressed as: These cost elements can be broken down further: The capital recovery factor depends on the required rate of return on assets and their lifetime (see Table 1), and the rectenna capital cost is the sum of the site acquisition and preparation cost, the support structure cost, the receiving antenna cost, the power conditioning and grid interface cost and additional storage cost. Using equation (1) we can use cost estimates from the literature in order to calculate what would be an economic ‘fuel’ cost. Denman el al. (1) estimated the rectenna capital cost at $3000m in 1977 dollars, which converts to approximately $600/kw (assuming US inflation of 5%/year since then, and an exchange rate of $ 1.90:£l). The correct rate of return on capital is a matter of debate, and so we consider the two cases of 5% and 10% (which are the past and present values of the required rate of return for UK nationalised industries) and a rectenna lifetime of 30 years. The operation and maintenance costs include a number of elements. The figure of 3% per annum of capital cost assumed here is that used by Cottrill (2) for other renewable energy sources. Table 2 shows the cost of operating a rectenna on these assumptions.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==