Why Elon Musk is Betting on Solar

Elon Musk is not interested in making safe bets. In fact, as the legendary entrepreneur told Big Think, he tends to be interested in industries that “a lot of people think are impossible or think you can’t succeed at – that’s usually where there’s opportunity.”

Consider solar. Wall Street tends to be bullish on solar energy, but is bearish on solar stocks. No one has yet figured out how to deliver solar energy cheaply. Musk, the co-founder of PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors, among other companies, is looking to prove the doubters wrong with his solar energy company SolarCity. 

While SolarCity has been consistently unprofitable, the company’s shares recently “popped” (up 14.4%) this week following an announcement that it had created, along with Direct Energy, a dedicated investment fund capable of financing up to $124 million in solar projects. 

Consider that the Earth is “not a frozen ice ball,” says Musk. “It’s due to the sun.” The challenge is to capture just a tiny amount of energy “compared to what the sun puts on the Earth every day.”

So how long will it take to get there? Musk hopes to accelerate the process with innovation.

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