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One square mile on the surface…

· 1 min read

One square mile on the surface receives 2.5 Gigawatts of solar energy. That’s Gigawatts with a “G”. It’s ~30% higher in space. The Starlink global satellite network is entirely solar/battery powered.

Factoring in solar panel efficiency (25%), packing density (80%) and usable daylight hours (
6), a reasonable rule of thumb is 3GWh of energy per square mile per day. Easy math, but almost no one does these basic calculations.