alternative fuels in order to encourage their development and use. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that consumer price is a reasonable target for cost of production. Rural Electrification Rural electrification fits into the scheme of things by: 1) providing a market in desperate need of high quality energy, 2) offering greater leveraging of assets, i.e. fewer dollars will buy more land and labor, and 3) energy can be provided as development assistance in exchange for support in acquiring the required frequency and orbital slot allocations. Consequently we provide a brief review of rural electrification which will be integrated into the proposals in the section on mechanisms for implementation. Whether rural electrification is an appropriate strategy and catalyst for rural development is a debate which has been going on almost since Edison created the first electric utility. Generally rural electrification has been undertaken by national governments to provide a better quality of life for its rural population and to provide an incentive not to migrate to the city. This was the case in America where the program resulted in the creation of the National Rural Electric Cooperative, an association of small rural utilities, which receives federal support. To date, it has not been undertaken on a global basis. In the future, the industrialized nations may provide economic assistance for rural electrification in order to rehabilitate local environments devastated due to excessive harvesting of fuelwood. Also the life-cycle cost of economic development aid for energy developments may prove cost-effective when compared to the cost of relief efforts and peacekeeping. Furthermore, energy in the form of electricity cannot be stored in a Swiss bank; it has to be put to work. There is an extensive body of literature that deals with many of the issues associated with rural electrification. A subsection of that literature deals with the use of terrestrial photovoltaics. Many of the benefits cited for distributed PV systems would be similar for energy from space. These are: • The need to limit hard currency expenditures for diesel fuel for remote generators. • The technology is capable of being scaled in a modular fashion and can thus be fit to social needs and local organizations. • The use of energy from space would provide a socially acceptable alternative to fuelwood thus greatly limiting the environmental damage Other advantages of energy from space technology over diesel generator systems include: • High reliability • No fuel requirements • Long lifetime (> 20 years)
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