Erik Nordeus - The Engineer

In the 19th century, the industrial world was dependent on mainly coal as a power source. As coal is a finite resource, scientists and engineers became concerned that the industrial world was running out of coal. The French mathematician, August Mouchet, attacked the problem by designing solar-powered steam engines. 422“The time will arrive when the industry of Europe will cease to find those natural resources, so necessary for it,” Mouchet said. “Petroleum springs and coal mines are not inexhaustible but are rapidly diminishing in many places. Will man, then, return to the power of water and wind? Or will he emigrate where the most powerful source of heat sends its rays to all? History will show what will come.” 423

A 19 year old Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel showed in 1839 how to convert light from the Sun to electricity – the photovoltaic effect. But as more oil was found and the solar technology was still expensive and inefficient, the world continued to be dependent on fossil fuels. 422

According to Elon, solar power will in the future be a major part of the technologies used to produce the world’s energy. The rest of the energy will come from a combination of nuclear, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal power. “I think that solar power will be the single biggest source of electricity, at least in the US,” Elon said. “If you look at the growth rate of solar then we will have power as long as the Sun shines. And if the Sun doesn’t shine, we have larger issues. Actually, the Earth is almost entirely solar powered today. The only reason to why we are not a frozen ice ball is because of the Sun. So it’s really about taking a little bit of that solar power and turning it into electricity that people could use.” 357

The number of solar panels we need if we are going to replace our dependency on more risky power sources is not as large as you may first think. Around a nuclear power plant, there’s a large zone where you are not allowed to walk. Elon argued that if we covered these zones with solar panels, then the energy produced from these panels would be larger than the energy produced by the nuclear power plants themselves. 339

The US President Jimmy Carter had the same ideas as Elon when he installed solar panels on the top of the White House during the 1973 energy crisis. “It can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people; harnessing the power of the Sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil,” Carter said. 43

Elon and his cousins set out to reinvent the solar industry. But there was one problem. Lyndon lost his visa status and was about to be forced out of the country. “Because I didn’t have a degree, I couldn’t get a green card,” Lyndon said. While in high school, he met his wife, and he introduced her to underwater hockey. Because his wife was considered a specialist in underwater hockey, she got a so-called green card. Since Lyndon married her, he also got a green card, and both of them could remain in the US. They are still practicing the sport for the US team. 108“But I wasn’t able to stay in the country for employing 280 people and eventually selling the company [Everdream] to Dell Computers,” Lyndon said. 237

Elon became a US citizen ten years after immigrating to the country. Together with 3500 other immigrants, he took the oath of American citizenship at the Pomona Fairplex. The ceremony was according to Elon “actually very moving.” 278His wife Justine slept through the alarm clock and missed the ceremony to get her American citizenship. Filled with anxiety, she realized she could attend a later ceremony. 142

With the citizenships secured, Peter and Lyndon began to learn everything about the solar power market in the same way as their cousin Elon would do it: read books and learn by doing. In 2005, they visited the exhibition Solar Power International. Of about 1000 attendees, everyone they met worked with the development of solar panels and how to manufacture them. “The barrier to getting individuals to use solar power was the up-front cost of installing the panels,” Lyndon said. “No one was talking about barriers to purchasing and delivery problems. If no one was focused on the end market, this business would make no progress.” 60,102

Manufacturing a standardized solar panel is not difficult. “Making standard efficiency solar panels is about as hard as making dry wall,” Elon said. “It’s really easy. In fact, I’d say dry wall’s probably harder.” 363The large problem would be to convince the society to install solar panels on thousands of rooftops. “You know, most of the taint is around solar manufacturing,” Lyndon said. “Our business model is totally different.” The siblings had realized that they didn’t need to manufacture any solar panels. They would just buy the parts and install them. 237

In a kitchen, Peter, Lyndon, and Elon founded SolarCity in July 2006. Their vision was to create the most compelling energy company of the 21st century by delivering cleaner, cheaper power through distributed generation. Lyndon became the CEO of the company, and Peter the COO as well as the CTO. SolarCity recruited their sister Almeda for work with sales. The fourth sibling, Russel, didn’t join them. He lived in Brazil where he married and owned the interactive-graphics firm SuperUber. 102Elon visited him in Brazil. “It was the worst place I’ve stayed since I was a teenager,” he said. “It stank, there were stains on the sheet, and the bedbugs did bite. It was awesome. We had a good time.” 54

His cousins would do the hard work, but Elon told them he would provide money and guidance. They calculated that they needed $10 million to begin the company’s hiring, marketing, research, and development efforts. “It is a fairly large round to show the company is serious about entering this market and has enough capital to move quickly,” Elon said. 104

While several companies are building large solar power plants with thousands of panels in the desert, SolarCity will spread out their panels on the roofs of homes and office buildings. All these buildings will together form a gigantic power plant. “We’re an energy company,” Lyndon said. “We install solar systems for free, and we sell the electricity at a lower rate than you can buy it from the utility. So given the option of paying more for dirty power or paying less for clean power, what would you take?” 237

To convince thousands of customers, SolarCity needed to make it as easy as possible for them to install the panels by providing the sales, financing, engineering, installation, and monitoring. The only thing the customer had to do was to let SolarCity into the house where the panels would be installed for free. With the solar panels installed, the customer had to pay a sum each month to lease them. No regular maintenance was needed, the only work someone with solar panels on the roof needed to do was to trim their trees to avoid shading of the panels. 397

In the future, the excess electricity produced by the solar panels will most likely be stored in batteries inside of the house. “We think in the years ahead this will be the default way that solar is installed,” Peter said. “Getting the costs down, though, is not going to be an easy task.” 103His cousin Elon had the same idea. “Future will indeed be rooftop solar + battery pack, w [with] utility company just providing backup power,” Elon wrote in a Twitter message.

SolarCity together with Tesla Motors solved one of Elon’s three things that in the future will most affect the future of humanity: the transition to a sustainable energy economy. “To get to a sustainable energy future, we must have both sustainable energy creation and consumption,” Elon said. “So SolarCity is about sustainable energy creation, whereas Tesla is about sustainable energy consumption.” 327