Elon Musk reveals what he thinks will be the 'biggest source of power for civilization'

Elon Musk recently declared on X that ‘solar electricity will become by far the biggest source of power for civilization,’ responding to a chart that highlighted solar’s dominance in new electricity capacity.

The tech entrepreneur shared his thoughts in a recent post on X in response to a chart showing solar’s dominance in new electricity.

The data in the graph comes from Ember, an independent energy think tank and data analytics organisation that tracks and analyses the world’s shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

It releases datasets tracking the rise of wind and solar power, both of which are the world’s fastest growing energy sources.

This is not the first time the Tesla CEO has advocated in favor of Solar power and how central it could be to the future of civilization.

The world’s richest man said in 2022 that he is optimistic about Earth’s climate future. Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, envisions solar energy as the ultimate path to decarbonization, emphasizing that this important transition hinges on technologies capable of efficiently storing sunlight for later use.“We will solve the climate issue. It is just a question of when,” he said in an interview with Mathias Döpfner.

“I think long term, most of civilization's energy is going to come from solar, and then you need to store it with battery because obviously the sun only shines during the day, and sometimes it is very cloudy,” he said. “So you need solar batteries. That will be the main long-term way that civilization is powered.”

Musk also leads Tesla Energy, the clean energy division of Tesla that develops and sells solar panels, the Solar Roof, and energy storage solutions like Powerwall and Megapack. Musk oversees the division as part of Tesla’s push into renewable energy and storage technologies.

Musk’s ambitions for the future extend beyond solar energy. He has also outlined how robots, like Tesla’s Optimus, could transform the human workforce and even help ‘eliminate poverty.’

While the robots of the future may help with domestic chores, running errands, or take over industrial and manufacturing work, Musk has even bigger plans for his robots.

“People often talk about eliminating poverty, giving everyone amazing medical care," Musk shared at a shareholder event last week. "There's actually only one way to do that, and that's with the Optimus robot."

He later added: “Optimus will actually eliminate poverty.”

Musk also shared his vision for a future in which Optimus makes working 'optional'. "We'll have, in a benign scenario, universal high income," Musk said in an interview with Joe Rogan. "Anyone can have any products or services that they want. But there will be a lot of trauma and disruption along the way."