We've all witnessed first-hand how in just two decades the internet has digitised industry after industry to deliver an increasingly zero marginal cost society (Marginal cost is the cost of producing an additional unit of a good or service after fixed costs have been absorbed.)
While I don't subscribe to the entire zero marginal cost society thesis, it is a good explanation for the effects that have transformed information industries like media, music & software. The same now applies increasingly to energy. While the fixed costs of the harvesting technologies to generate green electricity are decreasing exponentially, the marginal cost of producing renewable energy is near zero. The sun and the wind are free and only need to be captured and stored.
At a recent shareholder meeting, Elon Musk said Tesla's new solar shingles will cost less than a "normal roof" and the energy would essentially be free. Does this mark the dawn of mass market zero marginal cost mobility? Popular Mechanics recently ran the experiment, powering three electric vehicles with a conventional rooftop PV system. They concluded that buying a rooftop PV system to power your electric vehicle is comparable to prepaying three years worth of gasoline, based on $4/gallon, and never having to pay for it again.
We think the payback time for a retrofitted rooftop PV system can be even shorter! Based on average annual motoring, 15,000 km/year in Australia, a small 1.5 kW PV array (PM used 7.5 kw) could power a typical EV like a Nissan Leaf (114 Wh/km quoted energy consumption) on it's daily commute for 25+ years at an average cost of < $0.004/km.
Eliminating the $240/month a typical household spends on vehicle fuel, a modest rooftop PV system would pay for itself in just 6 months. Ticking the box to have Tesla tiles fitted to your new house eliminates the payback stage altogether. It is effectively a rooftop perpetual fuel pump where the per kilometre cost is zero from day 1.
Combine Tesla's solar shingles and EV powertrain which, irrespective of their "infinite Mile" 8 year warranty, is expected to last well in-excess of a million miles, (true for all EVs) with the ever growing installed base of rooftop PV systems (25% of households in some Australian states) and we could soon see zero marginal cost mobility becoming reality at internet speed, hammering another couple dozen nails in the coffin of ICE cars.
Over the past few years, the cost of electricity generation from renewable-energy sources has decreased dramatically. So much so, that renewable energy may have just hit an important milestone, according to one study. In the U.S., wind and solar power are now cheaper sources of electricity than natural gas—even without subsidies. DON'T MISS... ![The White House, Washington, D.C. [Creative Commons license by dcjohn]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/white-house_100170583_t.gif)
President-elect Donald Trump's energy policies are expected to be a sharp departure from those of his predecessor. During his campaign, Trump pledged to expedite and deregulate exploration and processing of fossil fuels, enact an "all-of-the-above" energy policy, and "bring back coal," among other promises. That has led to concerns among... 
Tesla is perhaps best known for its electric cars, but the company has another prominent business as well. Its Tesla Energy division markets stationary lithium-ion battery packs for energy storage. Energy-storage systems can increase the utility of home solar arrays, meaning Tesla Energy will likely become more important now that Tesla is set to... 
The combination of Tesla and SolarCity is already promoting its potential synergies, albeit in a location far away from the mainland United States. The island of Ta'u in American Samoa is located more than 4,000 miles from the U.S. West Coast, and typically relies on imported diesel fuel to generate electricity. With no local sources of fossil... 
The debate over U.S. energy policy took a dramatic turn last month when Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk squared off against the CEO top privately-owned U.S. coal producer Murray Energy. In an interview for the CNBC show "Squawk Box," Robert Murray called Tesla and its electric cars a "fraud." He criticized the automaker for failing to turn a profit... 
U.S. renewable-energy generating capacity is not only growing, but it is beginning to erode coal's share of the electricity-generating mix, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The agency predicts renewable energy—particularly solar power—to continue growing. At the same time, a combination of renewable... 
The overall carbon emissions associated with electric cars decrease as the electricity used to recharge them gets cleaner. And the latest statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA) will be good news indeed for electric-car drivers. Last year saw record growth in renewable energy, according to the IEA, which surpassed coal to become the... 
Late last week, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk held a press conference whose underlying message was support for the proposed combination of Tesla with solar installer SolarCity. Musk's cousin Lyndon Rive runs SolarCity and Musk sits on its board, but the proposed acquisition has been criticized by analysts as a distraction for the electric car...