Field Research for Solar Power Satellite Energy Receiving Stations

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The current stage of research for "SPS 2000" pilot plant project requires planing a number of microwave energy receiving antennas, "rectennas", at site within a few hundred kilometers of the equator. For each rectenna this requires selecting a suitable site, deciding its size and specification, estimating the energy storage capacity required, planning the local power distribution network and its operation, and other matters.The final stage of field research involved visites to Colombia in November 1998, Kiribati and Nauru in February 1999, and Gabon in February 2000, Meetings were held in these countries with national and local government officials and/or with interested researchers from universities and research institutes, at which the possibility of their countries participating in the SPS 2000 project was discussed. All were keen to participate, and candidate rectenna sites were identified. In these countries a number of issues were identified.Participants in a meeting at the Insti … More tute for Promotion of Science & Technology (Colciencias) in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, expressed great interest in participating in the SPS 2000 project, and a candidate rectenna site near the town of Pasto in the Andes in southern Colombia was recommended. A site was visited at Tuquerres where Narinho University has an agricultural research center, which could enable research on a high altitude rectenna in collaboration with the National University in Bogota.Kiribati is composed of a number of islands spread across the Pacific ocean, and it was proposed that a first rectenna should be sited in Tarawa, the capital of the country. A rectenna sited over the shallow water enclosed in the central lagoon of Tarawa atoll could be most appropriate. The Solar Energy Company of Kiribati already successfully operates photovoltaic generators for many families in a number of islands, and could play a central role in the planning and management of an SPS 2000 rectenna.In Nauru, the Director of External Affairs showed considerable interest in hosting an SPS 2000 rectenna, provided that help was provided. As an independent nation consisting of a single small island, resources are very limited, but siting of a rectenna could help to develop the interior of the island which is largely unusable due to mining activities in the past.Officials in the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Technological Innovation in Libreville, the capital of Gabon, stated the wish of the government of Gabon to collaborate in the realisation of the SPS 2000 project. They proposed that a rectenna should be sited in the south-east of the country near the city of Franceville, where the terrain is savanna and easy for siting a rectenna. Staff from the University of Science and Technology of Masuku (USTM) who are already participate in an international Earth observation project would be responsible for collaborating in the planning and operation of the rectenna. Less