A Burning Man 294
also attended the festival dressed like Darth Vader from the
Star Warsmovies.^358 To have somewhere to live, he rented
eight recreational vehicles with trailers and staff.^110
During the five-hour drive to the festival, Elon and
his cousins began to discuss how they could change the
world. Maybe Elon talked about how he would power his
electric cars without fossil fuels. He had earlier tried to buy
solar panels for his mansion in Bel Air, but realized it was
impossible to find a good supplier. “These were very, very
mom and pop shops,” Elon said. “There was no organization
I could turn to, to get good installation, professionally done,
and feel they would still be around in a few years. None
of them have put any serious effort into honing the whole
process – you know, squeezing out excess parts and labor –
and then they have no economies of scale as far as buying
panels en masse or establishing best practices.”71,104
When Elon and his cousins arrived to the festival, Peter
and Lyndon were convinced to start a company within
the solar power industry. “I thought that it was an area
that needed people like them [his cousins], who are really
good entrepreneurs, because solar wasn’t doing well as an
industry,” Elon said.^104
Our attempts to harness the Sun has a long history.
More than 2000 years ago, it was said that the Greek
scientist, Archimedes of Syracuse, had invented a powerful
weapon. He used the reflective properties of bronze shields
to focus sunlight to set fire to wooden ships from the