Cross checking solutions to the beamed Microwave problem

It might have helped to do some more reading on SPS first. WRT location: One of the chief benefits of SPS over things like ground-based solar, wind, geothermal, and water power is that it isn't geography-bound. The ability to beam power to wherever the markets are is a plus. WRT walls to keep out birds: Birds would suffer no ill effect from flying though an SPS beam. This was confirmed in DOE experiments conducted in the 70's. No need for the expense of several-miles-long walls. WRT lowering the satellite or enlarging the rectenna: There have been more recent proposals for LEO SPS (more for reasons of reducing lift costs than narrowing the beam). But this kills one of the chief advantages of the original SPS designs which is the geostationary position, in a region of space which is rarely eclipsed. As for enlarging the antenna, the existing designs have already been sized for taking in the primary lobe, and 1 or 2 secondary lobes. Those further lobes spilling off the edge are negligible. I think a problem we face is that even people favorably disposed toward SPS still don't appreciate the extent to which most of the problems have already been solved. Like Arthur P. Smith said, we need to do a better job of spreading the word.
Regards,
Mike Combs

putting forth this solution. Please let me know it is
actually representative of something and not pure
fiction.

Being fully mindful of the disaster of public opinion
regarding nuclear power, I figured it was near
impossible to defend beaming gigawatts of microwaves
at any frequency to earth where it might impact the
health of people or wildlife. A quick check of the
globe yielded three other places that look a lot more
appealing namely the Sahara desert, Tibetan Plateau,
and floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
anchored to an island atoll. This gets completely
around the sensitivities of the Western governments in
regard to their territory and gets a revenue flow
started that will make the next step possible.

The next step to me was building a very large wall
around the receiver (some 50 km in diameter for a
satellite in GSO) that is high enough to prevent birds
or anything else from flying over it. This would
prevent any problems at higher energies due to bird
kill. Unfortunately you have to go to something like
10 feet off of the ground to do this completely but
nobody is likely to care in the Sahara if this is not
done immediately.

The last was to either lower the orbital height of the
satellites or increase the size of the receiver until
there was essentially no spillover of microwave
energy. Once you have a revenue stream and the
electricity to power metal production the cost of
building such structures comes down to reality pretty
fast.

- Thor Olson