0191 -9067/81/O3O317-05$02.00/0 Copyright ® 1981 SUNS AT Energy Council PRESS BRIEFING ON THE US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY SATELLITE POWER SYSTEM CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION PROGRAM FINAL REPORT, DECEMBER 3, 1980 PETER E. GLASER Vice President Arthur D. Little, Inc. Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140 The results of a three year $19.5 million assessment of the Satellite Power System (SPS) concept were published by the US Department of Energy (DOE) on December 1, 1980. The SPS concept relies on the conversion of solar energy in space for use on Earth. For purposes of the assessment an SPS reference system was evolved. The satellite portion of this system in geosynchronous orbit consists of solar cell arrays covering an area of 5 x 10 km and a 1 km diameter transmitting antenna which directs a microwave beam to a receiving antenna on Earth, 10 x 13 km in area, where 5 million kW could be generated nearly continuously. The assessments were performed by DOE and its national laboratories with the support of NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Commerce. The objective of the assessments was to identify the issues which will influence future SPS development and to evaluate what is known, unknown, and uncertain about the SPS concept. More than 60 organizations, including public interest and small consulting groups and large industrial firms participated in the assessments. These assessments, unprecedented in the history of assessing energy options, have established a pattern for future assessments of major technologies. Because of the significance of the assessment findings to future energy supplies, public understanding of the status of the SPS program, and the implications of these findings for future space activities, an ad hoc Coordinating Committee on Space representing the Aerospace Industries Association, American Astronautical Society, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, L-5 Society, National Space Institute, The Space Foundation, Space Studies Institute, and the SUNSAT Energy Council agreed to publicize the key findings and to present their conclusions and recommendations on the SPS program. “The report discusses the important technical, environmental, and cost goal questions that must be answered prior to making a commitment to the SPS concept. Although significant technological, environmental, and economic questions remain to be answered, the preliminary investigations undertaken in the SPS Concept Development and Evaluation Program do provide a basis for a policy decision on future commitments.” “This report also suggests areas of research and experimentation needed to acquire the knowledge by which a series of informed, time-phased decisions may be made concerning the possibility of the SPS concept playing a major role in the United States energy future.”
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