How do you think history will remember Elon Musk?

If he manages to move battery life forward significantly that is all he will be known for... Cars and paypal will be minor footnotes compare to a phone battery that lasts for six months without recharging.

Even his hair transplant went right!

Who replaced Steve Jobs?

Everywhere he left did much worse.

Read toward the bottom of the article..

Reads to me as they want to develop higher end panels but create a affordable market for them.. He is thinking long term and doing something that seems very alien in today's world.. He's keeping the development and manufacturing right here in the US.

This is just my hunch but in his recent moves he has started a battery company and now taken over a solar company. I bet you anything in the next 5 to 10 years he will be producing a power system for homes. The tech is already out there and today you can piece together the components, but it really lacks the final polishing to market it to average consumers.

I'm betting that's part of his angle he likely wants to develop a complete home and car package.

the tech is there to achieve >~18% efficiency? I can see the investment in solar, it's a smart play for the future imo, and I do think we'll get much better panel efficiency in the future but it's my understanding we're not there yet.

Use the grid as your back up and save a ton on the system. The batteries are too expensive for the benefit.

He owns a Chevy volt. Hes da ghey

No one even mentioned a big story...that he just opened up the patents to Tesla's technology. He wants everyone else to start catching up because he's trying to change the culture which is dependent on antiquated internal combustion tech.

The analogy he makes (in an interview with Chris Hayes I just saw) is that if there's a bunch of teams bailing out a sinking ship, and you're team is doing great because of your bucket technology, it won't matter much in the end if when the ships sinks because you didn't share the tech.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...patent-reform/



the guy is just not about making money.

Yes this is where it is at right now. It is possible to run off grid but it requires more of an enthusiasts type of person. Someone whom just wants to do it or needs to for say a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

The biggest cost of running off grid is the actual batteries. I think this is where Musk will make the big difference.

There is another issue that also needs sorting.. That is the whole AC vs DC situation. The simple fact is the AC system is much better suited for the entire on grid situation. However in a off-grid situation having DC appliances is the game changer.

Some of the key growth areas that no one thinks about in a localized power system is DC appliances. The lighting situation has now been sorted out with LED lights but to move to a non grid tied housing situation we need to start seeing highly efficient full size refrigerators, washer/dryers and so on. Now of course you could always go natural gas on those items, but that's just trading on grid for carbon fuels.

Until people can get normal items that work well off grid it will be a small market. If we start seeing some of those big ticket appliances that can be run efficiently off grid, we will then see the start of no longer paying for centralized power systems.

yeah i wanted to post about that. He is a pretty cool guy.
I loved his interview when he was just getting Space-x going. A reporter asked him in a snarky way why he thought he is capable of understanding and running a space program. He just matter of factly stated, that he had read all the technical books and studied them.
There was nothing the reporter could say, it was clear in the message. I am a genius, you are a fool. Don't bother me..lol

So awesome.

Lets not forget his dedication to Tesla himself. The dude is working with Matt Inmann (The Oatmeal) to (which Inmann has already done) secure the Tesla estate, now he's willing to help turn it into a Tesla museum.

This is already possible. Car batteries store alot of power, and a house actually doesn't require that much, at least during a short blackout. You can buy gadgets that bring some of your car power back into your house with a sine wave inverter.

For sure it will work better with Tesla's because the Tesla batteries are bigger... and if you've seen the commercials for the Mitsubishi Leaf, they have a car powering a house in that commercial.

Agreed. Electric Cars. Space Ships. E-commerce. Wow.

AND THEN, THERE IS THIS DOUCHEBAG: