The question this page answers
What does a 100 MW AI campus imply for solar, storage, tokens, and a lunar mass-driver contrast? The six models below read one assumption registry. The numbers in this article are the Base preset with JavaScript off. Change a constant in the tool under this text and the live figures update.
Worked example — Base, 100 MW AI campus, 2026 costs
Inputs: 1,000 racks at 80 kW IT each, PUE 1.25, solar capacity factor 0.25, solar capex $900/kW, battery capex $180/kWh, round-trip efficiency 0.88, 16 hours of autonomy, grid price $0.06/kWh, 24.84 J/token, expendable lunar delivery $100,000/kg, mass-driver exit 2,400 m/s at 70% efficiency, driver capex $2,000,000,000 spread over 100,000,000 kg, Starship lunar payload 15,000 kg, 8 tankers per cargo ship, 1,000 t of cargo.
Outputs, first-order estimate: 80.0 MW IT and 100.0 MW facility. 24/7 solar plus storage: 400.0 MW nameplate, 1,818.2 MWh of battery, $687.3M capex. Solar overbuild (no storage): 400.0 MW, 727,273 panels at 550 W, $360.0M. Tokens at the physical energy floor: 347.83 billion tokens/day, $0.414 per million tokens. Lunar delivery: $100,000/kg expendable versus $20.07/kg on the driver. Fleet: 66.7 cargo ships and 533.3 tankers for 1,000 t.
These are first-order estimates for learning and argument, not an engineering or investment sign-off, and not affiliated with SpaceX, NASA, or any agency.
Formulas, in plain language
Campus. IT megawatts equal racks times kilowatts per rack, divided by 1,000. Facility megawatts equal IT megawatts times PUE.
24/7 solar plus storage. Nameplate megawatts equal facility megawatts divided by solar capacity factor. Battery megawatt-hours equal facility megawatts times autonomy hours, divided by round-trip efficiency. Capex is nameplate kilowatts times solar dollars per kilowatt, plus battery kilowatt-hours times battery dollars per kilowatt-hour.
Solar overbuild. Same nameplate as 24/7. Panel count is nameplate watts divided by 550 W. Capex is nameplate kilowatts times solar dollars per kilowatt. No battery in this line.
Tokens. Facility watts divided by joules per token is tokens per second. Times 86,400 is tokens per day. Dollars per million tokens equal joules per token, converted to kilowatt-hours, times the grid price, times one million. That is a physical energy floor, not an API price.
Lunar dollars per kilogram. The expendable case is the registry price. The driver case is kinetic energy ½v² divided by launch efficiency, priced at the grid, plus driver capex spread over lifetime throughput.
Fleet. Cargo ships equal cargo kilograms divided by lunar payload per ship. Tankers equal cargo ships times tankers per ship.
Constants used (Base)
| Id | Value | Unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| kw_per_rack | 80 | kW/rack | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| pue | 1.25 | — | Site writing: typical 1.1–1.5 |
| solar_cf | 0.25 | — | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| solar_capex | 900 | $/kW | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| battery_capex | 180 | $/kWh | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| rte | 0.88 | — | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| autonomy_h | 16 | h | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| grid_price | 0.06 | $/kWh | Site writing: $0.06/kWh in the joules-per-token example |
| j_per_token | 24.84 | J/token | Site writing: 6.9 Wh per 1,000 tokens at a 1.2 kW GPU, 60 tok/s, PUE 1.25 |
| expendable_lunar_usd_kg | 100000 | $/kg | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| md_exit_v | 2400 | m/s | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| md_eff | 0.7 | — | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| md_capex | 2000000000 | $ | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| md_lifetime_kg | 100000000 | kg | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| starship_lunar_kg | 15000 | kg | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| tankers_per_ship | 8 | — | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| panel_w | 550 | W | illustrative default, replace before citing |
| he3_ppb | 8 | ppb | Site writing: mare regolith roughly 4–20 ppb by mass; 8 ppb worked example |
Limitations
The bench leaves out interconnection, land, tax credits, battery replacement, interest, launch of the driver itself, weather, demand charges, networking, staff, and API margin. Tokens are a joule floor, not a vendor price. Starship payload is a public reusable-class planning figure, not an official quote. Helium-3 grade is on the registry as a caution; this page does not run a mining model on it.
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