Soviet Union (FSU). India has announced that they will pursue a solar power satellite program. Some of the highlights of this international interest are listed below. • The 1st international SPS Conference was held in 1986 in Paris /Gif-Sur-Yvette and was hosted by Electricite de France and Societe des Electricians et des Electroniciens (SEE). Over 200 people attended including a number from Developing and Third World Countries. • In 1991 the U.S. Department of Energy and Pacific Northwest Laboratories hosted a workshop on power beaming. The proceedings summarize the work in power beaming that had been done since the completion of the DOE/NASA concept definition study. • The Societe des Electricians et des Electroniciens (SEE) organized a 2nd international SPS Conference called SPS 91: Power from Space. Close to 300 people from around the world attended. The proceedings are available from SEE. • The 1992 International Space University's summer session design project was solar power satellites. The result of the 10 weeks of work by more than 140 graduate students, aerospace engineers, and faculty is a fairly detailed review of the technology, a definitive program plan, and an up to date conceptual design. • Texas A&M's Center for Space Power organized WPT '93: 1st Annual Wireless Power Transmission Conference - The Commercial Potential. This conference was attended by over 150 people including some from Japan, Europe, and Russia. • The American Institute Aeronautics and Aeronautics committee on International Cooperation held a workshop in December of 1994, which included a working group on Solar Power Satellites. • The SUNSAT Energy Council in cooperation with Dr. Lucien Deschamps of SEE participated in the UNESCO World Solar Summit by hosting a session on space solar power. • In the long run and as diagrammed in Figure 10 the power satellites can be constructed from mostly lunar materials. Then mankind will be truly drawing on the resources of "Greater Earth" to sustain both mankind and the planet. From the early 60's jo now the concept of solar power satellite has been a solution, which while solving a problem, lacks a path to implementation. The next section describes some of the stepping stones that make up one possible path. How these stepping stones or building blocks are assembled into a structure that provides energy for industrialization and development is described in the section on means of implementation. The Building Blocks The first part of this section address issues related to: • Level playing field for evaluation • Cost of Energy • Rural Electrification • African Regional Power Grids
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