DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS OF SPACE AND TERRESTRIALLY-BASED LARGE-SCALE COMMERCIAL POWER-SYSTEMS FOR EARTH - A PROTOTYPE ANALYSIS OF THEIR RELATIVE ECONOMIC-ADVANTAGES

Society must develop a large new source of electric power to adequatel y meet human needs in the 21st Century. The Lunar Solar Power system ( LSP) is a new option that is independent of the biosphere. LSP capture s sunlight on the moon, converts the solar power to microwaves, and be ams the power to receivers on Earth that output electricity. The colli mated microwave beams are low in intensity (< 20% of sunlight), safe, and environmentally benign. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) enables th e detailed quantitative comparison of alternative economic systems. We use DEA methodology to compare the technical efficiency of the large- scale power systems needed to meet the growing energy needs of terrest rial society. This comparison suggests the efficiencies to be gained f rom LSP are large indeed. Such gains remain even if the resources need ed for LSP are 10-fold greater than estimated from United States gover nment studies. In terms of benefits versus costs, normalized to the ra nge of 0-1, DEA reveals that LSP is much more efficient than conventio nal terrestrial solar-thermal and photovoltaic, fossil and nuclear sys tems. LSP is also environmentally benign compared to the conventional systems.