With the recent climate disaster and energy catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, I’ve been thinking a lot about the need of climatetech and our climatetech projects at the LRC. Humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels has persisted for far too long and events like the Pemex gas leak illustrate the need for the transition to sustainable energy. Companies like SolarCity have exemplified how new ventures can go to market with harnessing solar energy for electricity generation. When SolarCity first began selling energy storage systems, they built their units through a partnership with Tesla. Tesla manufactured the battery packs and stored them inside refrigerator-sized metal cases. Enterprises and consumers could purchase these storage systems to supplement their solar panel arrays. The battery units, once fully charged, could aid customers in getting through extended periods during unexpected outages. Customers also had the flexibility to draw energy from the units instead of the grid during peak energy consumption periods, which tended to come with the highest expenses. SolarCity then made a monumental decision in its growth strategy in its acquisition of Silevo, a solar cell maker, thus vertically integrating a key part of their operations. SolarCity now did not buy its solar panels but rather manufactured them at a factory in New York. The solar cells of Silevo were more efficient at converting light into energy than most cells. The solar panel market has always centered around the strategy of lowering costs, and SolarCity was able to significantly lower costs by conducting the manufacturing themselves. However, SolarCity currently still accounts for a small portion of the country’s annual energy consumption - hopefully soon, the composition of energy consumption in the U.S. will shift to sustainable sources as the majority if not entirety of energy use. With innovative approaches in solar cells, SolarCity could soon fulfill Musk’s vision of becoming a major supplier of electricity in the United States.