Jason Badeaux

With the right mechanisms in place, DERs will create a flexible grid by helping supply meet demand in a dynamic system. This represents a very exciting opportunity for electrification, with several software companies already developing solutions to make electricity demand digital and efficient.

Each energy transition has enabled massive improvements to existing materials (wrought iron and later steel made using coal), created entirely new materials (polymers from oil-refined petrochemicals) and/or made low-cost manufacturing viable at scale (aluminum using electricity).

Our multi-year research effort into Tesla’s manufacturing capabilities andsupply chain integrations suggest that Tesla is more than 6 years ahead of anycompetitor. This lead is expanding.

In Tesla’s 2016 annual shareholders meeting, Musk said:“We realized that the true problem, the true difficulty, and where the greatest potential is — is building the machine that makes the machine. In other words, it’s building the factory. I’m really thinking of the factory like a product.”

The convergence of artificial intelligence and battery technologies within the mobility space could disrupt transportation completely, radically reducing costs and benefiting consumers.

Early on in an energy transition, there is often more attention on how well they can do existing things. Examples include how well coal could heat and oil and electricity could light. But the larger impact for any energy transition, like other new technologies, is to enable us to do brand new things.

The first major [blockchain] breakthrough was bitcoin, which invented digital gold. The second was Ethereum, which introduced general-purpose smart contracts. Helium presents the most ambitious new use case for blockchains we’ve seen since Ethereum.

Jobs showed all of the other major smartphones in the industry to the audience, and in hindsight their cluttered, fixed, physical keys have not aged well.