SolarCity is currently one of the top solar energy corporations around. It was started in 2006 by Peter and Lyndon Rive, who happen to be Elon Musk’s cousins. When the company first started, the brothers went door-to-door to sell their products. While they sold solar panels that you’d see in homes, they also sold solar panels to businesses and other industrial sectors. Of course, they also sold several other solar energy products. For residential sectors, the brothers came up with a unique business plan. The customers would pay nothing upfront but they had to agree to purchase the power generated by the panels from SolarCity for 20 years.
[Image via AlyoshinE/Shutterstock.com]While not something most would take on, it actually seemed to become pretty popular. They became the most popular residential solar installer, but their business method also put them in debt by $1.5 billion. Elon bought the company in 2016 for around $2 billion, which was not a popular decision for holders of Tesla’s IPO. In turn, Musk merged SolarCity into the Tesla family to form “Tesla Energy.” SolarCity was a major part of Tesla’s introduction into residential energy storage for homes and it became one of the first installers of major Tesla Energy products. All this said it is clear Musk never came up with any of the technology SolarCity used.