"Is now the time for major government funding of Space Solar Power?" Join the debate! Your comments are very welcome.
Posted by Ralph Buttigieg at 12:05 AM http://www.discoveryenterprise.blogspot.com/

Reading the comments can be as enlightening as reading
the debate. Or as disheartening. I find the suggestion
that there is too little room in the geosynchronous orbit
a little strange. A few taps on the ol' calculator shows
that GEO is a bit more than 265,940,288 metres in
circumference. With solar insolation being on the order
of 1,400 watts per square metre, we find that there is
room for SSP intercepting over 372 gigawatts of power...
if we assume each SSP to be one metre wide. If we assume
one hundred metres, the number becomes 37.2 terawatts. At
ten Km wide we get 3,720 terawatts.