Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA), First Solar, Inc. (FSLR): Elon Musk’s SolarCity Corp (SCTY) Is Electrifying the Energy Industry

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Musk had a big hand in developing the business model for SolarCity. His cousins later founded the company in 2006 and have retained control of SolarCity throughout its public debut: Lyndon Rive as CEO and Peter Rive as chief technology officer.

Despite setbacks in this sector, Lyndon is confident that the market is ready for clean energy, particularly in solar. “The market adoption is almost doubling every year,” the SolarCity CEO quipped in a recent interview with Bloomberg News.

Innovation is in the family’s genes. In fact, this isn’t the Rive brothers’ first entrepreneurial undertaking. Their first start-up, a software-as-a-service company named Everdream, earned them a cool $120 million after Dell scooped it up in 2007.

In addition, as an investor, I find it hard to bet against Musk, given his track record of creating markets for products were there were none before. More than that, Musk has strategically overlapped SolarCity with Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), his electric-vehicle start-up.

Together with SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY), Tesla is blazing a new path in the renewable-energy space with its Supercharger network. The companies are now on track to install more than 100 of these solar-powered carports across the U.S. by 2015.

Known as Supercharger stations, the electric fueling locations will be free to use for those driving Tesla cars. Not only is SolarCity helping to install these solar panels for the Supercharger network, but the system also returns more energy to the grid than it uses to charge people’s cars.

Partnerships abound
SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) is also working with Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:HMC) to provide the automaker’s customers with affordable home solar systems, according to The New York Times. For SolarCity, the alliance with Honda could mean millions more customers and installations in the year ahead. I suspect we’ll see more partnerships like this in the future, as consumers begin to look for more cost-effective solutions to power their homes and cars.

The article Elon Musk’s SolarCity Is Electrifying the Energy Industry originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tamara Rutter owns shares of Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Tesla Motors .

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