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2.3.1 Systems Engineering for Space Solar Power Architectures
Author(s) -
Bayer Martin,
Born Andrew,
Davis Dean,
McCormick David,
Potter Seth
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.2010.tb01067.x
Subject(s) - renewable energy , solar power , base load power plant , solar energy , power (physics) , environmental science , wind power , grid parity , environmental economics , distributed generation , computer science , electrical engineering , engineering , economics , physics , quantum mechanics
Concerns about the availability and use of conventional nonrenewable energy sources have led to an increasing interest in renewable energy. Because renewable energy sources tend to be dilute and intermittent, solar power satellites have been proposed as a means of supplying large amounts of power continuously. Space solar power (SSP) will not be competitive for commercial‐scale baseload power without some combination of greatly reduced launch and non‐recurring engineering costs as well as space resource utilization. However, SSP may be competitive in the near term for niche markets where the fully burdened cost of delivery of conventional fuel is much higher than that for commercial markets. A model under development provides a tool to assess masses and costs of solar power satellites at a variety of power levels, orbits, and power transmission frequencies.