The Prospective Value of Space Solar Power as Renewable Energy: Implications for the Biosphere, Energy Security, and Overall Sustainable Economic Growth

Resources For The Future Inc, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

0231743 Macauley This proposal responds to the NASA/NSF request for the "study of costs and opportunities, and how to optimize them, for understanding the net impact of SSP on the biosphere and on sustainable growth." This proposed research will model and analyze the relationship among space solar power (SSP) and the earth environment, energy security, and sustainable development. It is responsive to key areas of understanding of costs and opportunities, and how to optimize them, for the net impact of SSP on the biosphere and on sustainable growth. The research will involve detailed computer-based modeling and evaluation of the economic value of SSP as a source of commercial power by the year 2020. The research will focus on the potential effects on the biosphere from SSP operation and the potential contribution of SSP to energy security and power supply resiliency. Both of these factors are key determinants of the role of SSP in sustainable economic growth around the world. To fully understand the contribution of SSP to sustainable growth, however, requires a broader economic context. Additional intellectual merits of the model will be explicit and the formal incorporation of uncertainty for all parameters, including terrestrial and SSP energy supplies, costs, biosphere and security effects, and adoption rates towards the year 2020. The research will result in a computer-based simulation model of the relative benefits and costs of SSP and explicit representation of energy, environmental, and security impacts.