Ministry of Innovation / Business of Technology

Elon Musk on the future of the future

Musk talks solar, electric cars, and rockets that come home.

A Tesla roadster charging up.

LONG BEACH, CA—Taking the stage during today's "Dream!" session at the TED2013 conference, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, sat down with TED curator and host Chris Anderson to discuss his serial entrepreneurship and vision for the future. Anderson started with the obvious. “Why try to build an electric car?” he asked Musk.

Musk said he believes it's an imperative. “It’s extremely important that we have sustainable transport and sustainable engine production,” Musk said. Our society, Musk argued, will continue to be dependent on electricity for the foreseeable future, and however that electricity is generated, it only makes sense to build our transportation system around it. Even though an increase in electric usage might mean more coal and natural gas burning at the electric company, Musk told the crowd that the efficiencies achievable at scale at the power plant are more environmentally friendly than the combustion engine alternatives.

Musk also believes that electric cars are now practical for many customers. “There are far more charging stations than people realize,” he said. California and Nevada are covered, and the eastern seaboard from Boston to Washington, DC is already covered. Ultimately, Musk wants to get the grid spread out across the country to support three-hour drives with 20-minute stops, which he says is a natural and comfortable break. “That’s the natural cadence of a trip,” he said.

The CEO doesn’t believe that natural gas and coal are going to take us into the future, either. Turning to discuss the national solar energy company SolarCity, Musk said that solar will ultimately beat every other energy source in the long run. What’s needed is an effort to drive the cost of installation and financing low enough that it becomes practical for consumers. Once installed, solar panels could produce electricity for “decades,” maybe even 100 years. It’s the upfront cost that is holding people back, he believes.

Enlarge / Elon Musk in a Tesla.
Musk discussed one nascent solution that could solve the cost problem: consumers could lease solar panels on their roofs at home, paying less than they would on their power bill otherwise, while the installation companies will be able to run the mass of leased panels as a distributed grid. “In roughly 18 years, I think we’ll see more power from solar than anything else,” Musk said. A distributed grid, he added, is key to this.

Curiously, Musk did note that there is one technology that isn't likely to ever go electric and benefit from solar. And it just happens to be related to his other venture, SpaceX. The rocket, he said, will always burn fuel.

So why start a space company? “The goal of SpaceX is to create a rapidly and fully reusable rocket,” he remarked. Ultimately he wants to build rockets that return, in stages, to the launch site. Anderson then asked why Musk hasn’t patented his advances. “Since our primary competition is national governments, the enforcement of patents is questionable,” he chimed, to much laughter.

Musk believes that humanity belongs roaming the stars. He would just like to make sure we’re all driving electric cars to the spaceport.

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