Comment by __alexs
12 hours ago
Sure but like, just use even more solar panels? You can probably buy a lot of them for the cost of a satellite.
12 hours ago
Sure but like, just use even more solar panels? You can probably buy a lot of them for the cost of a satellite.
The cost of putting them up there is a lot more than the cost of the cells
I think it's because at this scale a significant limit becomes the global production capacity for solar cells, and SpaceX is in the business of cheaper satellites and launch.
“This scale” is not realistic in terms of demand or even capability. We may as well talk about mining Sagittarius A* for neutrons.
You don't even need a particularly large scale, it's efficient resource utilization.
Humanity has a finite (and too small) capacity for building solar panels. AI requires lots of power already. So the question is, do you want AI to consume X (where X is a pretty big chunk of the pie), or five times X, from that total supply?
Using less PV is great, but only if the total cost ends up cheaper than installing 5X the capacity as terrestrial PV farms, along with daily smoothing batteries.
SpaceX is only skating to where they predict the cost puck will be.
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