zlacker

Wouldn't a 16km² gigantic solar roof on Earth already cover the energy needs that they're pitching will be saved with this space data center?

>>dlisbo+(OP)
No. It would need to be larger, probably by a factor of 3 or 4, for a couple reasons.

1) The atmosphere attenuates sunlight (even when it's not cloudy)

2) The solar array in orbit can pivot to face the sun all the time.

3) While most orbits will go into earth's shadow some of the time, on average they'll be in sunlight more of the time than a typical point on the surface.

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance