General Elon principles:
1) Question the question
The superior stratosolar solution comes from looking at the solar electricity generation problem from a new and radical perspective.
2) Reason from first principles.
Look at the solar electricity generation problem as a whole, move the location and thereby eliminate the unnecessary parts.
3) Kill your darlings
This is the fourth stratosolar design reboot. Build, test and continuously and rapidly iterate.
4) Undesign
No long term electricity storage, no long distance electricity transmission, no omniscient electricity grid control, one third the number of PV panels; provides fully dispatchable electricity from solar energy; a superior product at a fraction of the cost.
5) Ideas supersede hierarchy
Stratosolar does not have a hierarchy. Ideas win on a level playing field.
6) Everyone is a chief engineer.
This describes stratosolar to a t.
Without knowing it we have been following Elon’s principles all along. This speaks to the fundamental truth of the principles of innovating at the large scale.
By Edmund Kelly