Elon Musk: “The atmosphere alone results in about a 30% loss of energy.”

“I almost wore my other shirt, which says it's always sunny in space, which it is. So, because you don't have a day, night cycle or seasonality clouds or an atmosphere in space, because The atmosphere alone results in about a 30% loss of energy. So any given solar panels can do about five times more power in space than on the ground. And you avoid the cost of having batteries to carry you through the night.” (02:44–02:50)

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.