The Boss: SolarCity’s Chief, on a Turn Toward the Sun

By age 12, I was teaching ballroom dancing at my aunt’s dance studio. Jazz was my favorite music. When I was 17, I began my first business, which distributed homeopathic medications, and spent a fair amount of time on the road visiting communities to sell them. I almost got expelled from school because I was attending so few classes. But I did graduate, thanks to the good graces of the principal.

In June 1998, I traveled to San Jose, Calif., to play for South Africa’s national team competing in the underwater hockey world championships. In underwater hockey, players wear a mask, fins and a snorkel, and dive to the bottom of the pool and compete to pass the puck. I became interested in the sport, which is fast-moving and great fun, because my brother Peter also played.

I liked California so much that I decided to move to the United States to start a technology business. Together with my older brother Russell, who had been working in Silicon Valley, we started a company called Everdream that provided software for companies to maintain their computers remotely.

At first, the two of us ran the company from our rented house in Santa Cruz, Calif., and the next year, in 1999, we secured our first funding. Soon after that, our brother Peter, a software engineer, joined the business. Eventually, we realized that our stand-alone business model was not feasible for the long term. In 2007, the company was acquired by one of our corporate partners, Dell Inc.

Even before the sale, we had been working on an idea for a solar business. Our cousin, Elon Musk (our mothers are twins), who founded PayPal, suggested that we investigate clean energy. We started SolarCity on July 4, 2006, to symbolize our commitment to becoming independent of fossil fuels. Elon, who is the chief executive of SpaceX (the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation), and of the all-electric car company Tesla Motors, is chairman of SolarCity.

We decided to build on our expertise in providing remote services and to focus on distributing solar energy. We install solar panels free, then sell the energy they generate to customers, often at a lower rate than they pay their utility providers. We have more than $1.7 billion in backing from investors including banks and companies like Honda North America and Google. We have grown to more than 2,800 employees in 14 states. Last December, SolarCity began trading publicly.

We also provide solar services to large companies, including eBay, Walgreen and Wal-Mart Stores, to more than 300 schools and universities and to more than two dozen home builders. We recently helped a school district in the Central Valley of California convert to solar power, and save enough on its energy bills to be able to resuscitate its music program.

But we still have a long way to go, because solar energy supplies less than 1 percent of America’s energy needs. Tax incentives, just as they have for most energy sources of the past century, have helped make solar energy affordable and attract investors needed to expand operations.

My other job is being the father to two young boys, 4 and 5. Their mother is my wife, Madeleine, who was my high school sweetheart. In my spare time, I still love to play underwater hockey, but my mission is to change the way people get their electricity and provide more affordable clean energy.

As told to Elizabeth Olson.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/jobs/solarcitys-chief-on-a-turn-toward-the-sun.html?partner=rss&emc=rss