A data center company signed a PPA for space solar power

Two startups have signed a 20-year deal for solar power beamed down from space, though the technology is still years from working. Virtus Solis Technologies, a Michigan company, agreed to supply 100 megawatts of round-the-clock solar power to Brae Systems, which plans to use it for data centers submerged underwater rather than built on land. The power purchase agreement, or PPA, could expand to 250 megawatts later on.

The idea is to put solar panels in orbit, where sunlight is constant, convert that energy into radio waves, and beam it to receiving stations on the ground, which turn it back into electricity. Virtus Solis expects first power around 2030, but a lot has to happen first: a small pilot satellite within two years, financing for a full power plant, and a public demonstration in 2027 meant to prove its wireless power transfer can be efficient enough to matter. Brae, meanwhile, still has to prove out its own concept of submerging data centers in water for cooling, starting with the cooling ponds of a retiring coal plant in Illinois.

None of this affects home electricity or rebates directly. It is a sign that the huge power demands of data centers and artificial intelligence are pushing investment toward unproven technologies, including ones that seemed impractical a decade ago when a similar space-solar deal fell apart. Whether this one actually delivers power to anyone remains uncertain.