Will we see solar data centres in space?

This innovative design would be able to support power-hungry AI models

Spotted: AI is supercharging the potential of technologies across every industry, but it’s coming at an environmental cost, with the emissions of companies like Google skyrocketing in recent years because of their investment in new AI products. As AI models become more advanced and widely used, data centre power demand is likely to increase 160 per cent by the end of the decade, alongside rising emissions.

One way to cut data centre emissions and support the sustainable growth of AI is to use renewable energy, but switching data centres to green sources is often hampered by concerns over reliability, efficiency, and available space for clean energy generation. One startup, Lumen Orbit, may have an answer: building solar-powered data centres up in space.

At the moment, terrestrial hyper-scale data centres have a capacity of around 100 megawatts, but Lumen Orbit claims its approach could enable the sustainable growth of gigawatt-scale centres, which would allow it to meet the increasing power demand of large AI models without increasing emissions. The proposed orbital data centres would be large (although smaller than sites with their equivalent capacity on Earth), with a five-gigawatt site needing a solar array that’s four by four kilometres.

According to the company, its modular design would enable the technology to be scaled rapidly, much faster than typical infrastructure and energy projects on Earth, which are often slowed by planning, space, and environmental restrictions. In theory, all the components for a five-gigawatt centre could be deployed in just a couple of months.

Unlike here on Earth, solar energy generation in space isn’t impacted by the normal day-to-night cycles or cloudy weather, enabling the orbital data centres to be powered 24/7 using renewable energy. Plus, solar panels in space aren’t subject to atmospheric losses like their on-the-ground counterparts, making them more efficient at converting solar power into usable electricity. Because of this, the company estimates that solar arrays in space generate over five times more energy than those on Earth, making them significantly more cost-effective as well.

Founded earlier this year, Lumen Orbit has just raised over $10 million, following a $2.4 million pre-seed funding round in March. In 2025, the company plans to launch a demonstrator satellite in partnership with Nvidia’s Inception programme.

Written By: Matilda Cox