Elon Musk Says A Small Area In Spain Can Help Resolve Unprecedented European Energy Crisis Caused By Putin's War

One of the negative offshoots of Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is the unprecedented energy crisis in Europe. Increasing energy needs after the emergence of economies from the pandemic, disruption in the flow of Russian natural gas and harsh winter weather all worked in unison to aggravate the problem.

What Happened: Elon Musk on Wednesday took to Twitter to discuss a solution for the malaise. Musk suggested that solar power could be a panacea for the energy crisis.

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Musk was responding to a tweet by a user with the handle @Rainmaker1973. The user shared a graphic showing three small areas in North Africa that would be needed to be equipped with solar panels to power the world, Europe and Germany.

Along with the map, the user also shared a link to a thesis submitted by the faculty of the Technical University of Braunschweig that deduced that an area of 254 km would be needed to meet the total electricity demand of the world. An area of 110 km would suffice for EU-25 states and 45 km for Germany.

The total area of solar panels it would take to power the world, Europe, and Germany. This map is from Nadine May’s thesis

[source, read first: https://t.co/xXjEoppIJR] pic.twitter.com/68BCqwPSij

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 27, 2022

In reply, Musk said, “Such an obvious move.” He went on to add that "solar plus batteries on a small section of Spain would solve EU energy needs," apparently suggesting Europe could be self-sufficient if it decides to go big with solar energy utilization.

Why It’s Important: Musk’s flagship electric vehicle company Tesla Inc. TSLA has an ancillary energy business. The subsidiary, set up in April 2015, manufactures and markets photovoltaic solar energy generation systems, battery energy storage productions and related products and services. It services residential, commercial and industrial customers.

The 2016 SolarCity acquisition helped add solar energy generation to Tesla’s energy business.

Tesla’s energy storage business could be worth $47 billion or $15 per share by 2030, according to Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi.

Meanwhile, Europe has an uphill battle in solving its energy crisis amid an 80% cut in power and a 15-fold increase in the wholesale prices of electricity and gas since 2021, IMF said in a recent report.
JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon recently said in an interview that the energy crisis in Europe can go on for years.

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