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NETWORK / 15 / MARCH 2017 Solar technology has been around a long time. Back in the 1800s, French physicist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel first observed the photovoltaic effect, and by 1878, his compatriot Augustin Mouchot displayed a solar power generator at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. Nearly 140 years later, solar technology has now been voted as one of the utility sector's most transformative technologies. The recent and dramatic fall in price, coupled with its growing deployment is behind this position. Previously, solar technology was too expensive and had a small market share. Subsidies from European and global governments eager to cut carbon, saw solar capacity shoot up to 142GW by 2013, a total that will be much larger now. As deployment increased, manufacturing costs have come down. This, according to Ray Noble, owner of Solar BIPV, means "solar panels are being installed fully because of the value of the electricity they generate. This was always somewhere we needed to get to and we're there now." Substantial growth has come since 2014 in the 5MW+ markets in the UK, as the government pushed ahead with support for large industrial users to develop solar arrays on their sites. Residential solar has been given a boost and become more accessible, as the Solar Trade Association's partnership with Ikea. The Swedish furniture retailer began selling panels back in 2013, and in 2016 partnered with Solarcentury to continue its offering. These moves have seen the distributed generation grow in unpresented fashion, presenting a challenge to distribution network operators but helping the UK to cut its carbon emissions. Its partnership with other technologies, such as electric vehicles and energy storage, is helping to reshape how the electricity sector looks like. Solar PROFILE Disruptors are a double- edged sword. They challenge established business models in a way that will inevitably leave some behind, but they also bring about the kind of change that market would not have achieved on its own. Elon Musk is such a disruptor. The South African-born Canadian-American billionaire has deep pockets, grand ideas and a knack for pouncing on a market at its conception and shaping it in his own vision. Musk launched his first company at just 24 to provide maps and business directories to newly- created online newspapers at the dawn of the dot-com era. Four years later a›er linking digital online maps from Navteq to a business directory and creating the internet's first online yellow pages, he sold his company, Zip2 Corporation, for $307 million. From there he merged a subsequent online financial- services company with a competitor called Confinity. Although a clash of personalities saw Musk removed from the board before the company evolved into Paypal, Musk was influential in determining the common payment system for online shopping. Importantly although his ideas are cutting edge, he achieves buy- in from customers in a way that few others can. So why is this technology entrepreneur important to the utilities sector? Because two of the most disruptive technologies to have faced the energy industry; renewable energy and electric vehicles, are two of his core interests. So passionate is he about renewable energy that he set up the Musk Foundation in 2002 with the aim of supporting research into renewable energy, among other scientific areas. He also is chairman of the US solar company SolarCity. His company Tesla Powerwall is single-handedly determining the public vision of electricity storage, and doing an impressive job of raising the profile of an otherwise niche technology. Musk is pushing hard to reduce the cost of lithium-ion battery technology until it is acceptable to the mass consumer, and ramp up production to meet demand via his Gigafactory. The facility, which began production in January, currently stands at just 30 per cent of its final size. On completion in 2018 it will be the biggest factory in the world. The production line will also feed the insatiable desire for the Tesla electric vehicle. The Model S was the most popular EV in the world last year, selling more than 50,000 units. With super-fast charging infrastructure already putting new strains on the electricity network, and vehicle-to-grid technology on the horizon, there is no area of the energy market that is immune from Musk's influence moving forwards. Elon Musk Founder and products architect, Tesla and chairman, SolarCity Book your free tickets today at www.utilityweeklive.co.uk Numbers 34,400 The number of people the solar industry and its supply chain employs in the UK. 1.5% The proportion of UK electricity demand met by solar. 8GW Estimated solar capacity in the UK.