A Burning Man 300
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 con-
sumption,” Elon said. “So SolarCity is about sustainable
energy creation, whereas Tesla is about sustainable energy
consumption.”^327
The electric vehicles could now be powered with solar
panels. Not a single drop of oil or a single brick of coal
would be needed anymore. “With just a small 10 feet by
15 feet [3 m by 4.5 m] solar panel tucked away on the
roof of your garage, you will generate enough electricity
to travel about 400 miles [640 km] per week in the Tesla
Roadster,” Elon said. “If you travel less than that, you will
be energy positive with respect to transportation and the
excess electricity will offset your home’s power usage.”^248
There have been suggestions that you can increase the
range of an electric vehicle by installing solar panels on
the vehicle itself. But it sounds better than it is. “That’s a
little bit like fins on a Cadillac, they are decorative and it
looks nice, but they don’t do very much,” Martin Eberhard
said. “The amount of energy that hits the roof of your car
isn’t enough to make a big difference. If you’ve got pretty
good solar panels and cover the whole top surface it might
increase the driving range by 10 miles [16 km]. Far better is
to leave your solar panels at home where they can be at a
perfect angle and they can store that energy in the perfect
storage system called the grid.”^355
One of the first owners of the EV1 electric car from