Elon Musk: We're Harnessing Less Than 1% of Earth's Energy — Solar Power Will Dominate the Future

Elon Musk: We're currently harnessing less than 1% of the energy available on Earth.

“One way to look at civilization is progress on the Kardashev scale. Kardashev scale 1 means you've harnessed all the power of a planet. I think we've probably harnessed less than 1% of the power of Earth. Kardashev scale 2 is you've harnessed all the power of your sun.

The sun is overwhelmingly the largest source of energy in the solar system. Everything else maybe amounts to about a trillionth of the energy in the solar system, compared to the sun. So, it rounds up to 100%. That's how much of the energy in the future will be solar, when you view things from a Kardashev standpoint.”

Future Investment Initiative Conference, October 29, 2024