Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]

AlexanderHowl · 06-16-2019, 08:20 AM

Nuclear was never 'cheaper' than orbital solar. Even in the late-70s, it was experiencing delays, cost overruns, and safety issues due to scaling that concerned many of the scientists involved in the initial designs. At best, nuclear required a wholesale price of electricity of $100/MW-H (2019) to be profitable while orbital solar was potentially profitable at $25/MW-h (2019). In addition, orbital solar power is exportable while nuclear power is not, requiring only an easily built receiving field that can be assembled quickly and safely without issue.

An orbital solar array also has the advantage of avoiding the NIMBY problems that crippled the spread of nuclear. People can see the cooling towers of nuclear power plants from miles away. The receiving fields of the orbital solar arrays can be hidden by tall hedges.

As for the allocation of money, JFK managed to get a lot of money allocated to the Apollo mission, and there was no guarantee that it would work. I imagine that Teddy would have attempted to tap into the same optimism and the same hope that his brother had, and he would have had an accidental ally in George Lucas. With the release of Star Wars triggering the dreams and hopes of the American people in mid-1977, Teddy could have found an unexpected upwelling of support for such an ambitious idea.

06-16-2019, 08:20 AM	#18
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds] Nuclear was never 'cheaper' than orbital solar. Even in the late-70s, it was experiencing delays, cost overruns, and safety issues due to scaling that concerned many of the scientists involved in the initial designs. At best, nuclear required a wholesale price of electricity of $100/MW-H (2019) to be profitable while orbital solar was potentially profitable at $25/MW-h (2019). In addition, orbital solar power is exportable while nuclear power is not, requiring only an easily built receiving field that can be assembled quickly and safely without issue. An orbital solar array also has the advantage of avoiding the NIMBY problems that crippled the spread of nuclear. People can see the cooling towers of nuclear power plants from miles away. The receiving fields of the orbital solar arrays can be hidden by tall hedges. As for the allocation of money, JFK managed to get a lot of money allocated to the Apollo mission, and there was no guarantee that it would work. I imagine that Teddy would have attempted to tap into the same optimism and the same hope that his brother had, and he would have had an accidental ally in George Lucas. With the release of Star Wars triggering the dreams and hopes of the American people in mid-1977, Teddy could have found an unexpected upwelling of support for such an ambitious idea.