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That depends on launch costs and satellite design. The old designs from the 1970s would have been absurdly expensive. Modern designs like NASA's SPS-ALPHA are
by DennisP 4y ago
That depends on launch costs and satellite design.
The old designs from the 1970s would have been absurdly expensive. Modern designs like NASA's SPS-ALPHA are cheap to manufacture at scale. The book The Case for Space Solar Power has a detailed cost breakdown and puts a 2GW geostationary plant at 15 cents/kWh, but was published before SpaceX did much. I plugged in Starship launch costs and it came to 4 cents/kWh, which is pretty great for 24/7 clean power without storage.
Here is NASA's study (pdf): https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/niac_2011_phasei_mankins_spsalpha_tagged.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/niac_20...