Posted on 11/14/2025 5:30:11 AM PST by SmokingJoe
Elon Musk: Everything is solar power. The rest is noise.
“The sun is about 99.8% of the mass of the solar system. Jupiter's about 0.1% and everything else is in the remaining 0.1%, and we are much less than 0.1%.
So, if you burnt all of the mass of the solar system, then the total energy produced by the sun would still round up to 100%. If you just burnt Earth, the whole planet, and burnt Jupiter, which is very big and quite challenging to burn, turn Jupiter into a thermonuclear reactor, the sun is 99.8% of the mass of the solar system and everything else is in the miscellaneous category. Basically, no matter what you do, total energy produced in our solar system rounds up to 100% from the sun. You could even throw another Jupiter in, so we're going to snag a Jupiter from somewhere else, you could teleport two more Jupiters into our solar system, burn them, and the sun would still round up to 100%. As long as you're at 99.6%, you're still rounding up to 100%. Maybe that gives some perspective of why solar is really the thing that matters.
And, as soon as you start thinking about things at a grander scale, like Kardashev Scale 2 civilizations, it becomes very, very obvious. I'm not saying anything that's new, by the way. Anyone who studies physics has known this for a very long time. In fact, Kardashev, a Russian physicist who came up with this idea, I think, in the 1960s, just as a way to classify civilizations, where Kardashev Scale 1 would be, you've harnessed most of the energy of the planet, Kardashev Scale 2, you've harnessed most of the energy of your sun, Kardashev 3, you've harnessed most of the energy of a galaxy.
Now we're only about 1% or a few percent of Kardashev Scale 1 right now, optimistically. But as soon as you go to Kardashev Scale 2, where you're talking about the power of the sun, then you're really just saying everything is solar power and the rest is in the noise. Like, the sun produces about a billion times, or call it well over a billion times more energy than everything on Earth combined.”
All-In Podcast, October 31, 2025
Oil is stored solar energy.
He is just educating people about well known facts.
Facts and concepts which have been known for decades.
Musk’s mind is fascinating.. Thanks for posting.
In the wake of 9/11, Jerry Pournelle advocated for production of space solar power satellites to make the USA completely independent of Middle Eastern oil. He was very much against the Neocon adventures in the Middle East, which were a disaster for the USA.
He was not wrong.
I’m not quite sure what Musk’s point is here. I guess he just felt like delivering a little lecture on the importance of the Sun. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
But the greenies will love (and misunderstand) this quote: “Everything is solar power.”
If the abiogenic theory is correct, oil is product of the planet.
Musk describes himself perfectly.
The main difficulty in solar satellites beaming down power is the transmission. Upwards of 20% of the power would be lost.
He is a treasure. His tiff with Trump (probably the reason for your insult) is regrettable but unimportant.
Ranking civilizations by the Kardashev Scale is really stupid if you ask me. If they’re advanced, they should be able to produce energy much more effectively than relying on the power of the sun. The sun is a very inefficient thermonuclear reactor, by the way. Every year it only converts 0.00000001% of its hydrogen into helium, and only in its core. A hydrogen bomb, however, fuses all of its hydrogen into helium an instant. We should be able to build fusion reactors in the near future that are far better sources of energy than the sun, and in a more controlled way. Certainly more advanced civilizations will be able to do even better.
What he is saying is true. But we aren’t there yet. Other forms of energy are more efficient, especially nuclear. At some point a couple hundred or maybe a thousand years from now we’ll have a Dyson sphere around the sun and have unlimited solar energy. But at this point, mass solar use is science fiction.
solar power satellites were taken seriously in the 1970’s, and people forget that solar power is incredibly efficient but only if collected in outer space and beamed back to earth on receivers
Really? Round it up to 30 percent, and still 70 percent making it into the grid? Gee... that’s worth talking about...
Let take it one step at a time, because every step forward may have risks or adverse effects. Like how do you dispose of the excess heat produced in taking energy consumption up even one order of magnitude.
“ The main difficulty in solar satellites beaming down power is the transmission. Upwards of 20% of the power would be lost.”
Not to mention the extension cords are horribly expensive.
We can travel to the Sun if we do it at night. AOC
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