Three takeaways from Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s keynote at EEI energy event
Elon Musk, CEO of Austin-based Tesla, is no stranger to electrification and the power it takes to charge a vehicle battery or power a home.
As the electric transportation industry and other green industries grow, the billionaire predicted demand for more energy will “exponentially” increase, and urged the energy industry to prepare accordingly, during a keynote on Thursday in Austin at an energy-focused conference.
Musk spoke at an annual conference for Edison Electric Institute, or EEI, the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies and was interviewed by Pedro Pizarro of electricity giant Edison International.
The keynote covered a wide range of topics largely related to the electric industry including how Musk sees Tesla fitting into the sustainable energy economy, what he thinks power companies should be doing now to prepare for the future, and Musk’s fears about artificial intelligence.
Keys to the Future of Sustainable Energy
Musk outlined several things that he views as key to the future of energy starting with sustainable energy such as solar, wind, hydropower, and nuclear power. He also said stationary batteries, and electric powered transportation will be increasingly key in the coming decade. Tesla has existing products for both of these areas.
His comments also included an urging of the energy industry to massively scale up in the coming years as demand for energy increases.
“I can’t emphasize enough, we need more electricity,” Musk said. “However much you think we need; I assure you we need more.”
The billionaire said electricity demand is going to be “exponential” and predicted there will be three times the demand for power generated in 2035 as there is today.
How Austin-based Tesla’s products fit in:
The Tesla CEO said that electric vehicle production and demand are also growing exponentially, and predicted electrification of transportation at large, particularly passenger vehicles, will come quickly.
“I think we’re moving quickly to the point where half of all new vehicles made will be electric,” Musk said. “That’s likely to happen before the end of the decade.”
The billionaire also spoke about the trucking industry, saying while it won’t go electric overnight, it will move in that direction in coming years.
On Tesla’s end, Musk said that the vehicles use large batteries and Tesla needs sufficient battery supply to produce a wide scale production of its semitrucks. The Austin-based carmaker rolled out its first semitrucks last year in Nevada for the Frito Lay company after years of anticipation. Musk said he expects wide production of the vehicle starting next year.
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The CEO also spoke about Tesla’s lesser-known products related to battery storage and solar power, which Musk said he views as helping ease energy demand when usage is high.
This included Tesla’s Powerwall, an energy storage product typically used with solar energy systems for residential properties. The company also has a Megapack product designed for industrial and larger buildings, which is designed to help stabilize the grid and prevent outages.
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Even Artificial Intelligence will need more power:
With the rise of more public facing artificial intelligence tools making the technology more mainstream, it seems the emerging technology is coming up in every industry, and Musk’s keynote was no exception.
The billionaire spoke several times about the technology, including how the energy industry will need to provide more power as more AI is made, and said one of the restraints in scaling the technology will be energy demand.
The billionaire also called for more regulation, government oversight to make sure companies don’t do dangerous things, break rules or cut corners
“I think we need to be preemptive,” Musk said, adding that he has had conversations with world leaders including in China on artificial intelligence.
“It’s sort of a technology like nuclear (power),” Musk said. “It’s clearly powerful but it could get out of hand”
Despite his reservations with the technology, he has also said he plans to develop his own “anti-woke” AI software. The billionaire also spoke extensively about AI in May at Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting, including about Tesla’s artificial intelligence-based humanoid robot, Optimus, which has not come out yet. The robot is being designed off the same software as Tesla’s controversial ‘Full Self Driving’ vehicle software, a technology which industry experts and the company do not yet consider fully autonomous.
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