What do you think the lifetime energy output would be from a Lightsaber? Let’s find out! Note, without a direct line to George Lucas, we had to make a few assumptions and everything is calculated using currently available technology.
Mining the Kyber Crystal that effectively produces the “laser” part of the “sword” is based on the energy used to mine exotic diamonds. These crystals are highly controlled and hard to come by in the Star Wars Universe, so let’s base it on a hard to reach mine with very deep access. We will use the same size for both the crystal and diamond. That gives us a whopping mined energy footprint of 2115.3 kWh.
The outer body that contains the crystal is a lot less exotic. If we assume all resources and manufacturing were conducted in the USA, we can estimate 8.42kWh to produce it. That is about the same to make a hand-held calculator (but not the one in your phone).
We won’t take any shipping for this illustrious weaponry, as the Jedi’s are required to build this themselves and presumably will take the most renewable and energy efficient form of transport in the galaxy.
Now, according to the mythology, the Kyber Crystal has a huge energy output, but there are no figures of how much required energy that the Lightsaber focuses from the power cell into the Kyber Crystal to achieve this. Let’s assume that this energy is negligible, as we’ve never seen a Jedi required to flip open his Lightsaber and change out the batteries—but if he did, we’re going to assume it was from a sustainable source.
Although we have no idea what needs to go into the crystal for it to produce the beam, we can estimate what comes out the other side. A very rough analogy is by using the energy of an oxy-acetylene torch over the length of the “blade”, based on Qui-Gon’s Lightsaber cutting through the steel blast doors in Episode 1.
Further assuming that the average Jedi trains for 1hr a day, maybe an hour worth of battles a week, and works for 40 years, the power produced from the Lightsaber is a whopping 514.3MWh over its entire lifetime. Based on our assumptions, that is a ridiculously high efficiency and would power the average American household for 50 years.
Now, if we could just get a couple of billion Kyber Crystals to help power our planet we could end the debate about climate change…
