A space solar power workshop

Strategic energy alternatives have assumed new importance in light of growing energy demand, scarce supplies and environmental stress. The Space Solar Power Work-shop (SSPW) http://classweb.gatech.edu/conf/sspw/ was created as a cooperative software and hardware development forum to better understand the SSP engineering and business model. It exists, to educate the interested public about this SSP opportunity. The SSPW intends to develop a straw, business plan for transitioning to SSP power generation and delivery to client power grids. These goals include determining the costs resulting from various design assumptions. They transcend software and hardware development challenges to provide an open forum for the exchange of software and ideas which impact SSP design prototyping and optimization. Currently, we are developing design criteria and standardization paradigms that serve as interfaces among the developing component systems. Without more experience in developing SSP software, hardware, and procedures, designers are challenged to design and interface to other components some of which have not yet been designed, built, or GEO flight tested. This is a designer, practitioner, and strategic planner's workshop.