Musk’s other company says this amazing renewable energy could generate enough power to also charge up a Tesla in the garage.

* A Tesla battery could then power the home at night with stored solar power.

* Musk announced Tuesday that the company would acquire a solar panel maker and build factories “an order of magnitude” bigger than the plants that currently churn out panels.

* Musk’s goal is to make sure that the components critical to his vision of the future — electric cars and solar energy — are available and cheap enough to beat fossil fuels.

* As the industry stands right now, solar power is still much more expensive than conventional power, even before the enormous cost of a battery backup. And electric cars are less than 1 percent of the total auto market.

* SolarCity said it would manufacture enough panels each year to produce 1 gigawatt of peak power — roughly enough panels to outfit 200,000 homes with a typical-sized rooftop system. Future factories would produce 10 gigawatts worth of aesthetically pleasing panels.

Musk has made a career of thinking far into the future. If there’s anyone alive today that can “forward the light brigade” of renewable energy, it’s Elon Musk.

[More.](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/solarcity-installer-buy-panel-maker-silevo)