Musk: 100GW of space solar equals ~800GW on Earth, and ground solar needs batteries
elonmusk · x · 2026-11-12
Elon Musk offered a concrete conversion in a debate over powering AI compute: 100GW of solar in space is roughly equal to 800GW on Earth. He argued ground solar isn't equivalent — it must be paired with massive batteries to keep compute running at night and supplemented with combustion or nuclear power in winter. The exchange is part of his ongoing push for space-based power for AI datacenters.
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