Selling power-service at non-competitive prices (was RLV marginal co

> > > RLV cost of $500/kg,
> > Would that be the launch cost to:
> > a) LEO?
> In the'70s, Gerard O'Nielle posited

Unfortunately, Gerard O'Neil can answer for neither Ben Bova, nor
ANTIcarrot, especially since the latter two were talking about SPS
launched from Earth, and Gerard O'Neil avoided that subject.

In the meantime since I last posted, I found the answer in the
SSI_list archives:

"IIRC, GSO/Mars/Luna would be 7x LEO cost or $3,500/kg"

> At ten cents/watt delivered cost for the electricity, the
> SPS would earn one billion dollars/year

At 10 c/kWh busbar, a generating station would not be able to compete.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf02.html

"US cost figures for 2007 published by the Energy Utility Cost Group
showed nuclear utility generating costs averaging 2.866 c/kWh,
comprising 1.832 c/kWh operation and maintenance, 0.449 c/kWh fuel
and 0.585 c/kWh capital expenditure (NB apparently not amortisation
of the plants). US figures from a different source for 2007
published by NEI gave 1.68 c/kWh for fuel plus O&M. ...

Nuclear is comfortably cheaper than coal in seven of ten countries,
and cheaper than gas in all but one. At 10% discount rate nuclear
ranged 3-5 cents/kWh (except Japan: near 7 cents, and Netherlands),
and capital becomes 70% of power cost, instead of the 50% with 5%
discount rate. Here, nuclear is again cheaper than coal in eight of
twelve countries, and cheaper than gas in all but two. Among the
technologies analysed for the report, the new EPR if built in Germany
would deliver power at about 2.38 c/kWh"

> I expect we could derive useful energy from an SPS for
> about a century,

Ditto for nuclear. Every 20 years, estimated reactor lifetime gets
extended 20 years. Right now, most new reactors are designed for 60-
year lifetimes (70 years for Japan's reactors), and there is talk of
extending that to 80 or 100 years.
http://www.google.com/search?q=reactor+lifetime+%2280+years%
http://www.google.com/search?q=reactor+lifetime+%22100+years%22

They could very well last forever, since they do not age, given their
continuous refurbishments under ordinary maintenance standards. Even
the reactor vessels do not necessarily age:
http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book/chapter6.html

"The most complete remedy, which is also the most time consuming and
expensive, is to heat the reactor vessel to a very high temperature
(850F) to anneal out the radiation damage; this would, in fact, make
the vessel as good as new."