Lunar Solar Power: Three Frontiers of Energy

Concept art of a futuristic solar power station on the Moon.
Credit: Adrien Vonlanthen

Part 3/3: Building the Lunar Grid — Solar Power as the Backbone of Moon Settlements

The most ambitious phase of lunar enterprise is building sustained human habitats—bases, habitats, mining operations, and manufacturing systems. These ventures have hefty power demands, and while the Moon has resources like hydrogen, oxygen, and even uranium, no single source provides sufficient capacity on its own. The most feasible foundational energy system is a hybrid grid, with lunar solar power anchoring it.

Polar regions with near‑eternal sunlight—known as “peaks of eternal light”—are natural sites for large photovoltaic arrays. For example, ESA has explored lunar solar power satellites capable of delivering 23 MW continuously for surface operations using moon‑manufactured iron pyrite solar panels. In addition, studies using dish‑based solar thermal systems with regolith‑heat storage show promise for providing continuous energy, even through the lunar night.

However, solar alone cannot meet all circumstances. Shadowed craters—prime locations for ice extraction—or equatorial sites will experience prolonged darkness. That’s where nuclear systems become necessary. NASA, other agencies, and private ventures are advancing compact fission reactors, such as Kilopower systems, specifically engineered for lunar and Martian environments. A major plan calls for deploying a 100 kW nuclear reactor by 2030 to power sustained human presence at the lunar south pole.

A grounded vignette underlines risk: during Artemis‑I, the LunaH‑Map CubeSat designed to study ice in shadowed craters ran into power issues from insufficient sunlight—a reminder that relying solely on local solar conditions is risky in lunar real estate planning.

Parallel to solar and nuclear, In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) can augment power infrastructure. Fabricating components such as moonglass‑shielded solar panels from regolith dust could enable building durable, radiation‑resistant PV units on site. Also, thermal solar concentrators to heat regolith for oxygen extraction show that solar energy can be directly tied into ISRU operations.

Commercially, a hybrid grid opens new business models: habitats and manufacturers could purchase power as a service rather than deploy their own power infrastructure. Shared solar farms, nuclear hubs, and ISRU processing centres could operate like utilities. International agreements may treat these as lunar energy commons—leased or shared across projects.

Finally, layering the system with radioisotope power systems (RTGs) or battery backups ensures resilience in emergencies or during maintenance.

Together, a layered grid—anchored by solar, supported by nuclear, enhanced with ISRU, and backed by stored power—forms the functional backbone of lunar settlement. Without it, exploration stalls; with it, the Moon transforms into a platform for industry, continuity, and interplanetary expansion.

For investors and operators, lunar solar power is not just about technology readiness but market design. Each use case—Earth supply, cislunar logistics, lunar settlement—creates a distinct customer segment with its own price signals: sovereign buyers seeking grid resilience, private space firms requiring predictable orbital energy, and habitat operators demanding service-based utilities. The GTM pathways will therefore hinge on phased pilots, shared infrastructure models, and consortium financing that spreads cost and risk. What links them all is the chance to turn lunar energy from a research frontier into a multi-market utility business, built on repeatable platforms rather than one-off demonstrations.