Value chain · CLM-1194
In plain terms
The company's first planned project is sized at 200 MW to the grid from a 732-tonne satellite, running nine-tenths of the time over a 20-year life; a later project is 40 times bigger.
The claim as recorded
Virtus Solis's 2024 survey gives its first Lucidus project (Table 1, "Virtus Solis - Project #1") as 200 MW rated to grid from a total mass of 732 metric tons, at an 89% capacity factor producing 1,559,280 MWh a year, over an amortised lifetime of 20 years; its Project #8 is 8,000 MW from 24,513 t.
Scope and limits
THE VENDOR'S OWN FIGURES. SRC-013 is Virtus Solis's survey of its competitors and itself (T4), and states "Data associated with the Virtus Solis system was internally generated" (PDF 2). No held source checks them independently; SRC-076 Table 1 (PDF 12) repeats the 200 MW and 0.27 kW/kg for "Virtus Solis P1" from "manufacturers' claimed values (not independently verified by Frazer-Nash)" (PDF 11). Own arithmetic: 200 MW / 732 t = 0.27 kW/kg; 200 MW x 8,760 h x 0.89 = 1,559,280 MWh, exactly the table's figure. The table's other columns are other organisations' designs as the vendor restates them.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF 9, Table 1 at render, column "Virtus Solis - Project #1": "Rated Power to Grid" "MW" "200"; "Orbit Type" "MEO - Molniya"; "Capacity factor" "89%"; "Annual energy produced" "MWh" "1,559,280"; "Total Mass" "metric tons" "732"; "Amorized Lifetime" (sic) "years" "20". Column "Virtus Solis - Project #8": "8,000"; "24,513".
Basis: rated power to grid in MW; total mass in metric tons; capacity factor; annual energy in MWh; amortised lifetime in years
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1194
CLM-1194, Energy Aperture, as of 2024.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-013
- CLM-0187The company's own 2024 analysis estimates that a single, non-reused Starship launch to low orbit would cost about $665 per kilogram, and...CLM-0532A different space-solar-power company's own 2024 analysis estimates that a single non-reused Starship launch to low orbit would cost about...CLM-0667One company's design deliberately avoids the standard high orbit used by other designs, because it believes waiting for compatibility with...CLM-0668The same company's own numbers show that, using the identical rocket and the identical (chemical) engine type throughout, simply choosing a...CLM-1195The design builds one thin, nearly kilometre-wide disc out of many metre-sized flat satellites, each with solar cells on one side and radio...CLM-1196A separate, very light mirror flies beside each array and turns slowly, once a year, so the solar cells always see the Sun; for the first...CLM-1197The company beams at 10 GHz and claims its beam loses nothing in space on the way down, where the other designs in its own table lose...CLM-1198The first project's receiving site is a circle 2 km across, with two hours of batteries on the ground.More on the source page.