Virtus Solis Strikes First Commercial Space-Based Solar Power Deal
Virtus Solis Technologies and Brae Systems have finalized a 20-year power purchase agreement, marking the world’s first commercial contract for space-based solar energy. The deal will supply 100 megawatts of continuous, carbon-free power to Brae’s subsea data centers, with an option to scale the output to 250 megawatts within three years.
The agreement bypasses the intermittency issues of terrestrial renewables by utilizing high-efficiency radio-frequency power beaming. Virtus Solis will transmit energy directly to a dedicated receiving station in Illinois, providing Brae with the 24/7 baseload electricity required for its energy-intensive GPU infrastructure. By positioning data centers underwater, Brae leverages natural liquid cooling, effectively removing the thermal constraints that currently limit land-based AI clusters.
This multi-billion-dollar commitment arrives as Virtus Solis prepares for a critical technical milestone in March 2027, when the company will conduct a public demonstration of its wireless power transfer technology. Supported by a $2 million development agreement with ARPA-E, the startup is refining the electronics necessary to maintain 99.9% uptime for orbital generation. For Virtus Solis CEO John Bucknell, the partnership serves as a proof-of-concept for an architecture designed to deliver gigawatt-scale power that existing terrestrial grids struggle to supply.
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