Tesla CEO Elon Musk has just come out with his updated "Master Plan". If you're reading this practically invisible and pathetic little blog then you already know the details.
Its a new world. We're all going to be driving electric cars, have solar panels on our roofs and battery storage systems in our homes. Okay, but is it realistic? Are we going to do away with fossil fuels and be living on a cleaner planet in the decades to come?
There's no way to know for sure, the master plan doesn't include the building of a time machine. With that being said, I like the chances.
Someone born in the year 1900 would have had two major forms of transportation, by foot or by horse. For those fortunate enough to have the means to travel the world there were steam powered ships and coal fired trains. Cars and planes were still dreams in the planning stages, but they were dreams that came true. Within fifty years cars were everywhere, suburbs sprang up and ribbons of pavement crisscrossed the landscape. Intercontinental travellers were spared the long journeys across oceans as commercial air travel started flying people all over the world.
The new paradigm? Clean energy stored in Lithium Ion batteries running our homes, our cars and pretty much everything else.
When cars first came out some thought they were a fad, that the old reliable horse and buggy would never be replaced. The same thing happened when cell phones hit the market, some people said that there would always be a need for a hard wired phone in people's homes.
The world changes, and when the change is big its sometimes called a paradigm shift...that's what Mr. Musk is suggesting. I think he's right.
Will companies like Tesla combined with Solar City (assuming the merger goes through) lead the charge? Maybe, maybe not. There were a lot of car makers that were big at the start, and many of them were absorbed or disappeared. Does anyone remember the Packard? Same thing with cell phones, companies like Nokia and Motorola were the early leaders, long before Apple and Samsung.
Investors hoping to cash in on the changing landscape have a multitude of choices. Aside from the aforementioned Telsa (TSLA) and Solar City (SCTY) there are lithium miners, manufacturers of battery storage systems and their associated components, solar panels and wind turbines....and much more.
I've place a few bets, these aren't recommendations, there are plenty of publicly traded companies to choose from. I've put money into Lithium Mining with Lithium Americas (LAC on the Canadian TSX) and into battery storage and the inverters needed to integrate them into power grids with Eguana Tech (EGT on the Canadian TSX Venture) and a company that works in the solar panel space called Aurora Solar Tech (ACU also on the TSX Venture). For those seeking less risk the Global X Lithium ETF might be an option.
In my opinion the Green Energy sector is just starting to grab investor attention, and I don't think the party will be ending any time soon. And with Mr. Musk's ability to grab the spotlight, this updated master plan will be getting lots of play and chatter over the coming news cycle.
