[ExI] Solar power satellite logistics

[Adrian Tymes]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 10:14 AM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wroteL
>
> On Sun, Jul 12, 2020 at 3:44 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> >> if you can get the cost of lifting parts power
> >> satellite parts down to ~$100/kg, they come in at about half the cost
> >> per kWh of fission plants.
>
> > Does that include the cost to make the satellites and the rectennas, and
> run them all, or is that just comparing the launch cost of satellites to
> the total cost of nuclear fission plants?
>
> "Per kWh" takes into account all the costs.  The typical costs for
> nuclear energy is around 11 cents per kWh (UK numbers).
>
> The base case for 6.5 kg/kW power sats is
>
> $900/kW for the parts and labor in space
> $1300/kW to the lift cost to GEO
> $200/kW for the rectenna
>
> $2400/kW total.  Using the ratio of 80,000 to one, the power would
> cost 3 cents per kWh.  This includes maintenance.
>
> For comparison, the lowest cost in the mideast for PV power is 1.35
> cents per kWh.  That's down from 1.69 cents per kWh a year ago.
>

I assume that "ratio of" means the infrastructure is rated to provide
80,000 hours - just over 9 years - of output.  That
seems possibly reasonable, but where does that figure come from?

If the lift cost is $100/kg, does that mean the solar power satellite
designs you are aware of produce 13 kW/kg?

Parts is one thing (though at 13 kW/kg, that's about $100/kg, which seems a
bit high given the parts in question), but what sort of "labor in space"
are you thinking of (that can't be done for less cost by automation, or
bypassed entirely)?  Could this be driven down to closer to $130/kW, or
less?

And do you have a source for the rectenna cost?
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